


MormonTale

by BeepBeepTyler



Category: The Book of Mormon - Parker/Stone/Lopez
Genre: Basically it’s Undertale but with Mormons, But like some of the story is changed, Gen, I don’t know how to tag so uhhhh, I should probably tag that this is an Undertale AU, Undertale AU, Yeah that should be it, i don’t know
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-04
Updated: 2019-12-01
Packaged: 2021-01-23 05:17:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 17
Words: 50,001
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21314800
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BeepBeepTyler/pseuds/BeepBeepTyler
Summary: Long ago, in the year 1844, two decades after the beginning of the Latter-Day Saints movement, the founder of the Mormons, Joseph Smith, was killed after a mob had attacked their group.In retaliation, the Mormons declared war upon those opposing their religion to avenge their fallen leader. This, however, did not end well, for the Mormons were overpowered and forced under a barrier way down underground, blocked off from the rest of the world.That was supposed to be the end of the story. But, in the year 202X, a young child named Alex climbed the mountain the Mormons were trapped under, ignoring the warning that those who climb up never come back.
Relationships: Arnold Cunningham/Nabulungi Hatimbi, But they’re divorced lol, Elder Church/Elder Thomas (Book of Mormon Musical)
Comments: 9
Kudos: 12





	1. The Ruins

**Author's Note:**

> whats up my diggity dogs im back B^) this time with my undertale/tbom au i’ve had for a long while lol  
well ok, im the one who thought of it but me and my friend courtney (aka @/nebulousviolet) co-own it lol  
basically, if you didnt know already, its undertale but its mormons instead of monsters lmao thats pretty much it  
also, if you didnt know already, this is my NaNoWriMo novel! because if i write something entirely original i’ll lose interest and i’ve wanted to write this for a long while lol  
also im sorry for virtually no tags, its been literally a year since i posted to ao3 and i forgot how to tag anything kskdjfjcjf but courtney said what i put down is fine so— yeah  
before this gets longer than it already is, i want to give a special thanks to my friends courtney (of course), kat, and kristoph for being so supportive (is that the right word?) of this au, and my tumblr followers for putting up with me posting about this all the time lol  
anyway, onto the story >>

Alex woke up in utter confusion, not knowing where they were. One moment they were climbing the mountain, and then they were-- They looked up.

Yup. They fell down the hole in the mountain. The bed of daisies they currently sat in must have broken their fall. Alex looked ahead.

They supposed there was no way to go but forward now. There’s no way they’d be able to climb all the way back up to the surface. They got up, brushed themselves off, and began walking.

Alex was cautious of their movements. There were stories about the people who were trapped down here-- the Mormons-- and how dangerous they were. Legend has it they decided to declare war after their prophet was shot to death. They must’ve been incredibly stupid back then.

So far, it was mostly dark where they were. After all, there was no sun to give them light, at least from Alex’s knowledge. They saw a purple archway with some light seeping through from the side, and then-- Alex began running back the way they came. “Oh dear, did someone fall down?” They could hear a woman’s voice say in the distance. Her voice was laced with concern, but Alex didn’t go back. “Do not be afraid,” The woman called out. “I will not hurt you!”

Before they knew it, Alex was back at the bed of daisies, trying to find a way to escape. They didn’t know whether or not to trust the lady. She appeared from inside the dark that Alex had just escaped.

Alex didn’t know what to expect, but it wasn’t this. The lady was a tall dark-skinned woman, with short black curly hair that bounced as she walked. She was wearing a long blue dress with white sleeves. She seemed almost… friendly. “It’s okay,” she whispered, approaching them slowly. “I will not do you any harm.”

Alex looked at the woman vigilantly. They still weren’t sure about her. “I am Nabulungi,” she introduced herself. She spoke slowly and with warmth, reminding Alex of their mother in an odd way. “But most of the children who fall down here call me Naba. I take care of The Ruins.”

Alex approached her, not sure how to go about this. “I come down this way every morning to see if anyone has fallen down. A fallen child is a rare sight to see.” She smiled. A moment later, her eyebrows furrowed, but she was still smiling. “You don’t talk that much, do you?”

Alex shook their head, making a few motions with their hands. ‘I am mute.’

“Oh!” Naba gasped in surprise. “I’m sorry, My Child, I didn’t realize.” Now it was Alex’s turned to be surprised. ‘You can understand me?’

“Why, yes. I am very familiar with sign language.” Alex clapped happily. Most people couldn’t communicate with them. They understood, as sign language was somewhat difficult to learn. Even their parents couldn’t understand them at times.

“I think it is time to bring you to The Ruins. Come,” Naba said, extending her hand for Alex. They took it. “I will guide you through the catacombs.”

They walked through the dark… tunnel? Alex still wasn’t sure what it was. They went through the archway Alex had seen earlier, and soon enough, there was light again. The place they were lead to was littered with rocks, leaves, and various shades of purple. It was kind of pretty, at least in Alex’s opinion. Up ahead were two sets of stairs. The shadows of The Ruins loomed above Alex.

It filled them with determination.

They walked up the stairs and into the next room. There were seven buttons on the ground, accompanied by a switch on the wall. “Welcome to your new home, Small One,” Naba said, patting Alex’s head. “Let me explain how The Ruins operate.” Alex put on their serious face and nodded. Naba chuckled and said, “My, aren’t you eager?” Alex’s face dropped and they giggled. Naba cleared her throat. “The Ruins are filled to the brim with puzzles. Ancient fusions between diversions and doorkeys.”

Alex didn’t understand what that meant, but let her continue anyway.

“One must solve them to move from room to room.” She stepped on four of the buttons, pressed the switch on the wall, and smiled. A doorway opened from the wall. “Like so!” Alex nodded yet again, resisting the urge to clap. “Please adjust yourself to the sight of them.” Alex gave her a thumbs up, and they walked to the next room.

In that room, there were two bridges, two streams, (at least, that’s what Alex thought they were), and three more switches on the wall. “In this room, you will have to press the switches to get across the streams. I’ve labelled them to help you.” Naba walked to the first bridge and waited for Alex to press the switch.

Alex turned to her and signed, ‘Why do I have to press the button if the bridge is right there?’

“These aren’t for the bridges, My Child,” Naba replied. She pointed behind herself and added, “They’re for the spikes.” They tilted their head in confusion. ‘Why are there spikes?’

Naba did not have an answer for this. “Because… puzzles. Yes, because of puzzles,” she answered. Alex shrugged it off. They had a feeling Mormons were weird, but not _ this _ weird.

They walked up to the first switch and pulled it down. There was a clicking sound. “Very good! You’re learning quickly!”

Alex smiled and clapped. Naba walked over to the next bridge. Alex, as they reached the first bridge, however, had their attention diverted to the stream. They crouched down and stuck their hand into the water.

Alex really liked the texture of water. It made them happy, albeit they didn’t know why. It was just one of those things that they couldn’t explain about themselves. “Little One, I do not think you should be playing with the water,” Naba piped up, unsure of what to do. “I don’t know where it comes from.”

Alex smacked their hand into the water, causing a small splash. They giggled and dried their hand on their shirt. They stood up, walked to the second switch, and pulled that one too. “You’re a natural!” Naba praised, clasping her hands together. She felt just like a proud parent would after their child achieved something. “The last one is here,” she stated, now standing in front of the spikes. Alex looked over at the wall, only to notice a switch they didn’t see before. That one didn’t matter anyway, the correct one was labelled with yellow chalk circled around it. It too was pressed down.

Suddenly, the spikes behind Naba retracted into the ground. “Wonderful! You did it! I’m very proud of you, Young One.”

Alex bounded towards Naba, a smile on their face. They entered the next room.

The room was smaller than the last, being a lot less wide than before. In the centre was a beige dummy made of (presumably) cloth. “Here in the underground, people may try to attack you,” Naba said, moving to stand next to the training dummy. “You will need to be prepared for these types of situations.” Alex nodded. ‘I understand.’

“The process is simple. If someone engages you in a fight, strike up a friendly conversation!”

Alex tilted their head again. Why would they do that? Fights aren’t usually nice. Most people would want to beat you up if they picked a fight with you. Alex knows from experience.

“Go on,” Naba encouraged, gesturing to the dummy. “Try talking to it.”

Alex walked up to the dummy, their eyebrows furrowing. They waved at it, and signed, ‘Hello.’ Naba looked very pleased.

The dummy did not respond, for it was a dummy, not a person. Alex darted their eyes from Naba to the dummy, and did as they were told. Try to start a conversation.

‘How are you today?’

The dummy still did not answer. Alex thought that was enough conversation with it. “Splendid! You are very good at this,” Naba said. “Come now. There’s another puzzle in the next room.”

In said room, there was a hallway leading to a large pool of water with a bed of spikes above it. The sight of the spikes made Alex uneasy, but they decided to go up to it anyway.

They were stopped in their tracks as they noticed a small white frog staring up at them from the ground. They waved to the frog, but backed away.

They didn’t like slimy things, and they did not want to interact with the frog more than they had to.

Alex walked up to Naba, who was blocking the spikes. They tugged on her sleeve, and she turned around to look at them. “Ah, this is the puzzle, but…” she trailed off. “This one seems a little too dangerous for you right now. Here, take my hand.” Alex did so.

They walked across the spikes, which retracted once their feet landed on them. It was clear as to why Naba didn’t want Alex to solve it on their own; One wrong step meant they would probably get hurt. And to top it all off, there was a specific pattern to the spikes, which Alex never would’ve figured out themselves. They were grateful they were with Naba.

They made it to the end and their hands dropped to their sides again. “Now then,” Naba started, walking into the next room. Alex followed closely behind. “You’ve done excellently thus far, My Child.” Alex felt proud of themselves, although they had help getting through most of the puzzles. “However, I have a difficult request to ask of you.”

Uh oh.

“I would like you to walk to the end of this room by yourself.”

Alex thought that was a little bit dramatic. They were used to walking alone all the time. They assumed that the other children who fell down here had friends. While they were thinking, they hadn’t realized Naba had left the room. Assuming she was in the next room over, they began to walk.

The hallway seemed a lot larger than it really was. Alex took a moment to look at the details.

It was, as all of The Ruins were, different shades of purple. The walls were built with large bricks that almost reminded them of a school building in a strange way. Given, school walls were not purple, but there were similarities. There were also a few vines seeping through the cracks of the bricks, which Alex assumed were from old age. The place really lived up to its name. Alex decided they should start walking now.

It took Alex almost no time at all to reach the end of it. When they did, they noticed a tall, white pillar was there. Behind the pillar was none other than Naba, who emerged from behind it as Alex had reached the exit. “Good job, My Child!” she said as she reached Alex. “Do not worry, I hadn’t left you. I was merely behind this pillar the whole time.”

Yeah, they had figured. Why was there an empty room with only a pillar anyway? Mormons were, indeed, weird. “There was a reason for this exercise, though.”

‘What would that be?’

“It was to test your independence. I have business to attend to, which means you will have to be alone for a while.”

‘Why can’t you just take me with you?’

“Because it’s a surprise. Here,” Naba said, pulling out an old flip phone from her pocket. “If you need to contact me, I have a spare cell phone for you.”

Alex had never seen a phone that old before. They weren’t even sure how to use it. “Now, if you would, please stay here while I go do my business.”

Alex nodded. Naba said her goodbyes, Alex simply waving, and she was off.

Alex sat down on the ground and flipped open their new phone to see if it worked. It did, but Alex had no idea what to do with it. The screen turned on and four icons appeared. Messages, call, camera, and contacts.

Alex did not feel like exploring the flip phone further. They closed it and put it in their pants pocket.

There was nothing there for Alex in the room. They felt like it would be a waste of time to just sit there and do nothing, so they decided the best course of action was to continue onwards. They stood up, brushed themselves off, and walked off to the next room.

As if on cue, Naba called them. They flipped open the phone and answered. “Hello, this is Naba. You haven’t left the room, have you?” Alex shook their head. Then they realized Naba couldn’t see them. “There are a few puzzles I haven’t explained yet. It would be dangerous to solve them by yourself.”

Judging by the three rocks that look like they slide onto the buttons that are next to them, dangerous would be the wrong word. “Be good, alright?”

Before Alex could reply, there was a click, and the dial tone rang. They shut their flip phone and walked to the rocks.

However, after two steps, Naba called again. Flip. “Hello, this is Naba.” Alex didn’t understand why Naba had to make a new call right after ending the first one, but didn’t question it. “For no reason in particular, do you prefer pumpkin or apple?” Alex didn’t know how to respond. They hadn’t spoken to Naba using their voice yet, and they were honestly afraid to. They let out a squeak, not knowing what to say. “Oh dear,” Naba said, realizing Alex doesn’t speak. ”I’m so sorry, I forgot you don’t talk. My apologies, Child. You can text me your answer instead.” Alex nodded and pressed the end call button. Now they had to figure out how to use the flip phone.

They figured the circle of buttons, surrounding an ‘ok’ button, was how to navigate the phone. They pressed one, and the red box around the call box moved to the text box. They hit ok and conversations appeared. The only one there was Naba.

They pressed that thread and typed in their answer. ‘Pumpkin.’

Sent.

Alex flipped the phone again and went over to the rocks. It took a bit of strength to move the first one, but they managed to slide it to the button. They went to the second and did the same thing. Suddenly, the phone dinged. Alex rolled their eyes and flipped it open _ again. _‘Thank you!’

Alex was beginning to get annoyed at the woman. They wanted to solve the puzzles and keep going, not text back and forth on a phone that looks like it had its peak in the 90s. He walked over to the last rock and pushed it as well. The spikes retracted. He moved onto the next room, and got yet _ another _ding. ‘Do you have any allergies? I would hate to make you sick.’

‘None.’

Flip. Alex looked around the room, being distracted by the phone beforehand. There was a pile of leaves, and entrances to two other rooms. Alex ignored both entrances in favour of crinkling the leaves instead.

They crouched down and took a leaf in their hand. It was an orangish-brown colour, signalling that it was dead. They pressed their hands together, crushing the leaf and making a crunch sound.

Alex liked the sound of crunching leaves. It was pleasant on their ears. They crunched a few more leaves before standing up again and moving on. The interaction filled them with determination.

They went to the room at the top of the previous to find a single bowl filled with candy. They took a piece of candy, which Alex was pretty sure was butterscotch (or something of the sort), and stuffed it into their pocket.

They went back to the entrance in the room with leaves and went through. The room was simply a hallway with a table. The table had a piece of cheese on it, presumably for the mouse who lives in the mousehole in the wall behind the table, and that was it. Alex would reach for the cheese, but they didn’t know how long it had been there. It might be sticky. They went ahead.

The next room was, surprisingly, another hallway. There were more leaves in the centre, this time a dirty violet colour. They did not want to touch those leaves, because they were unsure the sound they would make. They had never seen purple leaves before.

As they walked across, the leaves crunched beneath their feet. That was a pleasant surprise. They left the room.

The next one had six different nets aligned in rows of three; three on the left and three on the right. And, to Alex’s dismay, more spikes leading to the next room. These puzzles were becoming tedious.

Not sure which one to try, Alex tried stepping on the middle net on the left. They fell through to a small enclosure with a switch in the middle. Despite the scare from falling, they let out a breath of relief. At least they won't have to spend a lot of time trying to figure this one out. They pressed down on the lever and heard a clicking sound. They went through the dark pathway next to the lever, which turned out to be a set of stairs, and left for the next room.

In there was a large pile of purple leaves. They looked about the same as the ones Alex saw earlier. They tried walking across, only to fall down into a room with red leaves in a specific pattern on the ground. They walked up to a sign that was on the wall that read, ‘Please do not step on the leaves.’

Alex didn’t feel like memorizing the pattern, instead opting to climb the stairs back up, flop down onto their belly, and try to decipher which leaves were safe to step on. They crawled on the leaves, pressing their hands into them to see if they would create a hole. If they did, they waved their hand around to find which way they should go next. The ordeal was not fun in the slightest. Now their clothes were covered in dirt and leaves and— Ugh.

Onto the next room.

There were three pillars with three different coloured switches beside them. The switches looked like small figures, resembling cartoonish people. Walking a bit further revealed that the puzzle had already been solved.

The next room had the same puzzle, this time left unsolved. There were two switches beside two pillars, with a third one behind. The thing that blocked the doorway to the next room? Spikes. Alex presumed the ‘hidden’ switch was the correct switch to press. They turned the head of the switch and— click. They were right. The spikes retracted.

The next room, shockingly, was the same puzzle. Miraculously, Alex turned the right one. They were secretly hoping the room wasn’t the same as the last three.

It was the same. They groaned, and opted to turn the blue switch. This resulted in a hole opening from underneath them, and they were slid back into the first room.

Their feet dragged as they made their way back to the fourth room. They spared the details of the rooms, as they looked just like how the rest of The Ruins did. Purple bricks, purple walkways, and vines. It was becoming a miserable sight. They tried the yellow switch this time. It worked.

Finally, there was a room with no puzzles. Instead, there was a large opening that had a large, black tree with no leaves on it, and another at the end. They chose to enter the room at the end instead.

There, they found a toy knife lying on the ground. They picked it up, presuming if they _ did _have to fight anyone, it would come in handy. They shoved it into their pocket.

There wasn't much to the room, only that there was the toy knife. They left.

Walking in the direction of the barren tree, they could hear footsteps. This caused their guard to go up. “Oh gosh, that took longer than I expected.” Alex heard their phone ding, and as they looked up from it, Naba appeared. “Oh!” she let out a gasp and ran towards them. “How did you get here, Little one? Are you hurt?”

Alex shook their head, although they were dirty, they were pretty much fine. “I should not have left you alone for so long, My Child, I’m so very sorry. It was irresponsible to try and surprise you like—“ She cut herself off. Her cheeks reddened and she muttered, “Err… I suppose I cannot hide it any longer.” Naba extended her hand once again. “Come, Small One!” Alex took it, and they walked to the house in the distance.

The house was different than the rest of the ruins. It was a pale cream colour, reminding Alex of vanilla. More specifically, vanilla ice cream. Alex liked the house.

As Alex entered the house, moments after Naba had, their nose caught the scent of something sweet that wafted through the air. “Do you smell that?” Naba said. “Surprise! It’s a pumpkin pie!”

Alex smiled. They liked pumpkin pie. It made them reminisce about celebrating Thanksgiving with their family. They were getting hungry just thinking about it. “I thought we could celebrate your arrival to the underground.” Alex clapped. When put like that, it felt like a special day. “I want you to have a nice time living here, so I shall hold off on cherry-apple pie for tonight.”

That pie sounds disgusting. Apple and cherry most certainly shouldn’t go together like that. The sour taste of the cherry would overthrow the sweetness of the apple. Alex decided not to comment.

“I also have another surprise for you!” Naba went into the hallway on the right, which revealed three separate doors. There was also carpet aligning the floor and potted water sausages and daisies among the walls. She stopped at the first door. “This is it… A room of your own!” Alex smiled again. They were glad that Naba had taken their unexpected arrival with so much care and joy, even giving them their own room in her home. It made _ them _feel at home. “I hope you like it!” She beamed, and patted Alex’s head. “Now if you will excuse me, I need to check on the pie. Make yourself at home!” Naba walked off, leaving Alex alone again. Alex decided to enter the room.

The room was a light red colour, with a middle sized bed, a lamp, toys, and a dresser. It was somewhat similar to Alex’s own room at home, sans the red. Alex stretched their arms up above their head and kicked off their shoes. They hopped onto the bed and tucked themselves in, deciding to take a quick nap.

The bed was very cozy, to say the least. Alex was tempted to not even get up. They would see how well that would work out when they woke up. Deciding not to think too much about the bed, they shut their eyes and drifted off into sleep, a smile still plastered onto their face.

.

When they woke up, the smell of pie hit their face. They turned their body to face the rest of the room instead of the wall, only to be greeted by a slice of pumpkin pie on the floor. They appreciated waking up to find the pie, but didn’t understand why it had to be on the floor. The floor is very dirty, and the pie might be ridden with germs now. However, they wanted pie. And pie they shall get.

Alex climbed out of bed in order to get the pie. Seeing as there was a fork on the plate as well, they gently took that off the plate before grabbing the whole thing. They sat back on the bed and began eating the pie.

The pie was, surprisingly, delicious. There might be a little _ too _much pumpkin in it, though. But what were they expecting? It’s called pumpkin pie, after all.

They finished their pie and got up. They slipped their shoes on and opened the door. The lights were brighter than they were anticipating. It took a moment for their eyes to adjust.

They walked through the hall and into the living room, only to see Naba reading a book while sitting on a recliner. They walked past her and into the kitchen.

Although it was hard, Alex put their plate into the sink. On the counter was the rest of the pie.

The pie was big. It was… _ really _big. The size of the pie intimidated Alex. They walked back to the living room and stood in front of Naba.

They tugged her sleeve, and she looked up from her book. “Oh! You’re up! Hello, My Child.” Alex waved. Naba smiled warmly. “I want you to know how glad I am to have someone here. There are so many things I would like to share.” Alex understood. They hadn’t run into anyone during their travel to Naba’s house, which could only mean, in Alex’s mind, that nobody else lived in The Ruins. It must get incredibly lonely here. “I have even prepared a curriculum for your education! It may come as a surprise to you, but I’ve always dreamed of being a teacher.”

That did not, in fact, come off as a surprise. Naba had already taught them a lot in the time they had been underground. She would be a perfect teacher. “Anyway, I am glad to have you living here!” A pause. “Did you need something?”

Alex signed, ‘When can I go home?’ Naba’s eyes widened. “Home…? My child, this _ is _your home now.” Alex scowled. Although they liked Naba, they wanted to go back up to the surface. They hadn’t been gone for long, but soon enough their parents will be worried about their whereabouts. Naba noticed the concern, maybe with a hint of bitterness, on their face. “...Would you like to learn about this book I’m reading? It’s called ‘72 facts about cats.’ How about it?”

‘I would like to go home now.’

Naba darted their eyes away from Alex to the side. She looked down at her book and said, “Here’s a good one! Cats make great private detectives!”

That didn’t sound right, but Alex didn’t say anything. “Interesting, huh?” Alex nodded, but signed, ‘How do I exit The Ruins?’

Naba closed her book. “Excuse me, I need to go do something real quick.” She stood up and set her book down on the recliner. “Please do not follow me. Stay here and be a good child.” Naba left the living room and went down the stairs near the foyer. Alex didn’t listen. The ways she’s going _ must _lead to the exit.

By the time Alex had reached the stairs, Naba was already out of sight. They climbed down the beige stairs, greeted by a purple hallway. Alex was getting sick of the colour purple.

They ran ahead to find Naba, quickly finding her. She turned around at the sound of footsteps. She was not happy.

Naba let out a frustrated sigh. “You wish to return home, do you not?” Alex nodded. “Ahead of us lies the end of The Ruins… I am going to destroy it so nobody is able to leave again. Please go back upstairs.” She walked off again.

Alex couldn’t believe what they were hearing. Destroy the exit? That wouldn’t be fair to them, or her, or anyone. They didn’t like the idea of being trapped in The Ruins, and they were sure Naba didn’t like it either. Then again, she _ is _the only one left in there, presumably by choice. Alex raced after the woman again.

She stopped at a turn in the hallway, this time not bothering to look at Alex. “Every child that falls down here meets the same fate. I’ve seen it happen over and over again. They come, they leave, they… They die.” She hesitated saying that last part. It must be hard for Naba to see children leave and never come back. Alex felt sympathy, but not enough to go back upstairs. “If you leave The Ruins, they… _ Arnold _… Will kill you.”

Who was Arnold? Maybe the king of Mormons? Alex didn’t know, but hearing his name made them anxious. “I am only trying to protect you, do you understand?” She sighed again. “Go to your room. _ Please _.” She continued onwards, Alex close behind.

She stopped yet again after turning another corner, facing a straightaway. Alex could see the door in the distance. “Do not try to stop me. This is your final warning.”

Alex refused to give up. They followed Naba to the door. Naba grunted and ran a hand through her curls. “You want to leave so badly? Hmph.” Alex averted his gaze from her, not entirely sure why they felt guilty for wanting to leave. “You are just like the others.”

Although Naba couldn’t see, they signed, ‘I’m sorry.’

“I don’t know what else to do to stop you,” she whispered, resting her head on the door. “Fighting would be illogical and… I can’t force you to stay. That wouldn’t be fair to you.”

Alex started fidgeting with their hands. They felt bad for leaving Naba like this, but if they wanted to go home, this was the only way. “What do you want to do?” Naba asked, turning around to face Alex. “Do you want to stay, or… go home?”

Alex looked down, then up again. ‘Home.’

“I figured as much…” Naba fixed her posture, although she still looked sad. “You would be unhappy trapped here. The Ruins are a bit small once you get used to them.”

Alex ran up to Naba, tears in their eyes. Naba sighed and crouched down, enveloping the small child in her arms. Alex hugged back. “Please be safe, My Child. And be cautious of the others out there. They would not hesitate to fight you.” Alex nodded into her shoulder, signalling that they understood. “Goodbye, Naba,” they whispered, barely loud enough for Naba to hear. Naba squeezed them tighter, and then let go. “Goodbye, My Child. Have a safe travel.” Naba patted their back and stood up. She walked back the way they came and turned around to get one last look at Alex. Alex waved goodbye, and Naba left. Alex braced themselves before going to opening the door.

They pushed the handle. Their journey was finally going to begin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yeah so, i know this chapter was boring. the ruins are boring. it was boring to write this lmao  
but uhhh snowdin!! my favourite part of the entire game (and au)! its next chapter!!  
i cant give a specific date that itll be done, but you can always go on my tumblr @/kevinscoffeecup for updates because i post regular updates lol  
can i get a yeehaw? yeehaw! ok bye lol


	2. Snowdin Forest

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i swear to god, i didnt expect chapter 2 to be finished this quickly jsfjgjfkfkf but it is, and its here  
so anyway, real quick i have that message and im sorry for being rude but im just gonna put it out there  
i dont know who you are, amino girl who ships jack and kevin, but stay the fuck away from me  
dont read this chapter. dont read this fic in general. in fact, block me! stay away from me! forever! youre disgusting and i hate you!  
anyway yeehaw here you go, chapter 2

After the door to The Ruins shut, Alex opened their eyes.

There was white. A lot of white. Snow, Alex deciphered. It was a lot colder out here than The Ruins was. Alex walked forward.

They managed to make out that they were in a forest of sorts. Trees lining up to make a path towards whatever was their next destination. Alex rubbed their hands against their forearms. It was…  really  chilly.

They walked for awhile, unsure whether or not to break off from the path and go into the woods. That would be dangerous, however, and Alex really didn’t feel like getting themselves hurt because of their curiosity.

That’s happened multiple times before, and none of those times were fun.

They stopped at a bridge that was above an abyss. Around said bridge were pillars made of wood that seemed to resemble a barrier. Was it a barrier? Or was it supposed to be a gate? Alex didn’t know, and to be blunt, they didn’t care either.

In the distance, they could hear two voices. Or was it one? They couldn’t tell, they sounded exactly the same. They walked a little closer.

There were, indeed, two figures. One was sitting at a wooden booth looking construction, and the other was sitting on top of said booth. One wore green and one wore blue. 

As they got closer, Alex could hear a bit of their conversation. “So, if we ever reach the surface, do you think you would want to be a missionary? Because  I  want to be a missionary and spread the word of Heavenly Father to all the people up there!”

“Kev, buddy, you know I’m too lazy to walk around for eight hours getting doors slammed in my face because people think we’re evil. It’s a waste of time.”

“It absolutely is  not  a waste of time! Who knows, maybe we’d even get a few converts! The Latter Day Saints movement is small so far, but I bet we’d be able to convince some people to join if we just tried!” The green one put his feet on the booth and leaned his chair back. “You got ambition, I’ll give you that.”

“Don’t be such a Debbie Downer, it’ll work.”

“Whatever you say, kiddo.”

Alex tried to sneak past them, unsure if they were dangerous or not. “Oh my gosh, that’s a kid.” They froze. The one in green stood up, his right hand up in surrender. “Don’t worry, buddy, we aren’t gonna hurt you.” Alex could see clearly now how they looked.

The green one was wearing a hoodie, with dark brown pants and low cut boots. The blue one was wearing a royal blue sweater, blue gloves, black pants, and matching boots. He also had a light blue scarf and a cardboard name tag with ‘Kevin’ written on it with white marker. He wore  a lot of blue. “Here, uh… Frick, I’m not good with kids,” The green one muttered, not really sure what to do. The blue one, ‘Kevin’ Alex presumed, jumped up from the booth and held up his book. It was a Book of Mormon, filled with sticky notes within every other page. He seemed bewildered at the sight of Alex. “Oh boy, I’ve never seen a gentile before!”

“That’s not the right word, Kevin.”

“Sorry… But uh, hey! Would you like to hear about the Book of Mormon? I think you’ll like it! It’s about—“

“Kev, please, that’s a child. They don’t want to hear about the book.”

The green one was right. Alex didn’t want to hear about the book. “Jack, c’mon! You always do this!” Kevin pouted, crossing his arms. “I just want to convert someone into the church!”

“A child is not the way to start.”

“But we don’t know any ge— Non-Mormons! Everyone is already a Mormon! There’s nobody to convert!”

“I mean, it  would  be odd if someone wasn’t a Mormon,” Jack said sarcastically. “We’re all trapped underground because we’re Mormons.”

“That’s not true! We’re trapped because of the war that happened a couple hundred years ago!”

“Right. A war that happened  because we’re Mormons .”

“Ugh!”

Alex stood awkwardly as they watched the two boys bicker on. They’ve seemingly forgotten that they were there in the first place. “I hate you!” Kevin shouted, throwing his hands to his face. “No you don’t. You  love  me,” Jack teased, drawing out the o in ‘love.’ He gave Kevin a noogie. Once he let Kevin go from the headlock, he turned his head, only to see Alex staring back at him. “Oh, right, there’s a kid here.”

Alex waved awkwardly, unsure of what to do. “We haven’t even introduced ourselves yet. How rude.” Jack gave Alex a smirk and stuck out his right hand. “I’m Jack. Jack Price. And this is my brother—“

“Kevin!” Kevin piped up, a cheerful grin back on his face. “And uh, what’s yours?”

Alex didn’t know how to say their name. They tried signing ‘Alex,’ but was met with Jack’s eyebrows furrowing. Kevin didn’t understand either, doing finger guns in response to the odd hand motions. Jack’s eyes darted from Kevin to Alex, and he said, “Can you speak?”

Alex shook their head. “Ah.”

“Does that mean he’s deaf?”

“Probably not, he can understand us just fine.”

Alex didn’t bother correcting the boys on their pronouns. They didn’t even know how to  tell  them that they’re… well… a them, not a he.

“What should we do with him?” Jack shrugged. “I dunno. Take him to our place and chill, I guess.”

“We aren’t going to just  chill  at home with him, that’s giving you an excuse to take a break from your job and sleep!”

Jack snorted. “Well, what do you want to do with him?” Kevin paused. “I don’t know.”

“Exactly. And that’s why we’re going to bring him to our house. You okay with that, Kid?”

Alex nodded. Although the boys seemed harmless, they were unsure whether to trust them or not. “The Kid says yes. We’re going home.”

“I saw that he nodded his head, Jack, you don’t need to tell me.”

“Just making sure.” 

The two brothers joined hands and they began walking away, not before saying in unison, “Come on, Kid. We’re going home.”

Alex followed them, but stayed behind at a distance. Who knows if they would try to pull anything on them.

It was probably rude to listen to their conversation, but Alex couldn’t help it. They were really loud. “When are you going to start using the gloves I gave you? Your hands are practically frozen!”

“Dunno. When I find them I guess.”

“You lost them?!”

“Yeah. They’re somewhere in my room.”

Kevin groaned. “Then clean your room so you can find them! I got those gloves the same time I got mine and I don’t want them sitting somewhere in your room collecting dust!”

“You do it. It’s practically your room anyway, you might as well start acting like it.”

Alex didn’t understand why they were fighting over gloves. They were just gloves. Maybe they fought about literally everything. Alex didn’t know, and they didn’t know how long they would be able to take this. “Wait wait wait,” Kevin said, stopping in his tracks. They had all stopped at an intersection, one path going forward and one path going left. “I want to see if that fishing rod’s still there.”

“Why? It’s always there, and it’ll  always  be there.”

“Well I want to see it, so we’re going to see it.” Kevin started trotting towards the left path, Jack being dragged along with him. Alex followed, just because they didn’t want to be alone in a forest. The risk of someone finding them is significantly higher now that they know more than one person lives out here.

Like Kevin said, there was a fishing rod there. It was propped up against a pine tree, and the line was cast into the water down below. “See? I told you it was still here!”

“Neat.”

“Can we reel it in?”

“Why? To see if the pictures gone?”

A pause. “Maybe.”

“Come on, we have to take this kid home before we get caught with him. We aren’t reeling in the picture.”

“I mean… Fine, whatever,” Kevin pouted, following Jack back onto the path. Kevin pouts a lot, Alex noticed. By the way things looked, Kevin got what he wanted almost all the time. That was probably a bad parenting choice by whoever raised them. Alex has seen people like Kevin, albeit more entitled and rude. At least Kevin was nice.

They walked a bit farther before reaching another one of those booths, with another man inside it. Alex cowered behind Jack, not wanting to be seen. “Eric,” Jack said, nodding his head. The man— Eric— had his head leaning on his hand, signalling his boredom. His job must suck. “Jack,” Eric replied, nodding in response. “Why aren’t you at your station? Work hours aren’t over yet.”

“We found a kid so we’re taking him to James.”

“Ah, okay. Have fun with that.” They walked away.

When they were out of earshot, Kevin asked, “Schrader really doesn’t care that we found a Non-Mormon? I’d guess he’d be real excited. I mean, King Arnold needs one more soul to break the barrier, and this kid has that soul!”

Jack turned around to look at Alex, who had a look of fear on their face. That made sense, they’d probably heard about how the Mormons could escape the underground already. “Don’t look so down, Kiddo,” Jack said. Kevin looked back too and started frowning. “Mr. Cunningham is a big pushover, I’m sure he won’t kill you.”

Kevin whispered something into Jack’s ear, too low for Alex to hear. “I know that, but I’m not going to tell  him  that. He’s ten at the most, he doesn’t need to worry about death.”

Mr. Cunningham absolutely will kill them. Everyone they’ve encountered so far was nice, but the king of Mormons? They’ll most certainly die at the hands of him.

There was silence for a few moments, before Kevin put a smile back on his face and said, “We should name The Kid!”

Jack raised an eyebrow and replied, “Should we really? I mean he probably has a name already, he just won’t tell us.”

“Well, yeah! We can’t just keep calling him ‘Kid’ forever, we need a name for him. Ooh, hold on, we’re getting close to my station.” Kevin let go of Jack’s hand and ran up ahead. Jack looked at Alex again. “I was being serious when I said Mr. Cunningham won’t kill you. If anything, James’ll be the one to kill you.”

Alex didn’t know who James was, but decided that he was a threat to them. Jack glared at Alex and added, “Don’t tell Kevin James’ll kill you. He doesn’t know that’s his job. Or my  job. The whole point of The Royal Guard is to kill anyone who falls down, but uh… Y’know what? I’m rambling. I’ll stop now.” So they, or at least, Jack was, a threat to them. Wonderful news. “Jack, hurry up! I got a name for him!” Kevin shouted, waving his hand in the air to capture Jack’s attention.

“I’m coming, I’m coming,” Jack shouted back, making his way towards the station.

When they arrived, Alex noticed it wasn’t like the other stations they’d passed. It was shoddily built, and the thing looked like it would fall apart at any second. Taped to the base was a piece of paper that read, ‘Sentry station of Kevin Price, future royal guardsman and proud converter of many Latter-Day Saints! (Eventually.)’

Alex tugged on Jack’s hoodie sleeve and pointed at the sign. Jack bent down to Alex’s height and muttered. “Kev isn’t part of The Royal Guard yet, so he built his own sentry station. He really wants to join, and since James likes him, he was made an honourary member… or something. Tell him it looks bad and I’ll break your skull open.” Jack patted Alex’s back and straightened up. “So what’s his new name?”

“Squirt!”

That name reminded Alex of old people. Old people, more specifically their grandfather, called them Squirt all the time. Well, given the fact that these people have been trapped underground for over 200 years shows they don’t know how times have changed up on the surface. Okay, that was a bit of a stretch. They did have cell phones, after all. They couldn’t be  too  far behind. “Squirt? Like that turtle thing from the card you found at the dump?”

“Yeah! Like that one!”

That made more sense. One of them must’ve found a Pokemon card somewhere. Squirtle, more specifically. They were pretty sure they had Squirtle in their own Pokemon collection. “Alright, then. Squirt it is.”

Yet another pause. “Why did you have to run here to tell me his name?”

“Well, because of—“ Kevin held up a piece of paper that said ‘Squirt’ on it. “—This!” Kevin came out of his sentry station with the piece of paper and a piece of scotch tape, and taped it to Alex’s shirt. Alex guessed it was supposed to be a name tag for them. “Okay, we can go now,” Kevin said, grabbing Jack’s hand and walking forward. It took a moment for Jack to register that they were moving on, but he was quick to catch up to Kevin’s side. Alex continued to follow. “Can we get cinnarolls before we get home?”

“Kev, Kiddo, I love you, but I really don’t feel like answering all these questions right now.”

“It’s a yes or no question, Jack.” Jack sighed. “Yes, we can get cinnarolls before we go home.”

“Yay!”

“Now please, for the love of Heavenly Father, stop with the questions.”

“Fine, I’ll stop.”

Not even a minute later, Kevin was back at it as he spotted a large patch of ice ahead of them. “Jack! We’re at the ice patch! Can I skate on it?” Jack sighed. He was just about ready to give up and let Kevin do whatever he wanted. “You skated on it this morning, Kiddo.”

“It’s fun! I want to do it again!” Jack rolled his eyes and went, “Go ahead.” Kevin ran ahead yet again, and Jack went to sit down against a nearby tree. “Squirt, do me a favour and wake me up when he’s done. I need a nap.” Alex nodded and gave a thumbs up. “Thanks a trillion.”

By the time Alex had turned around to join Kevin on the ice, Jack was already snoring. It was understandable, Kevin had so much energy and there was only so much a person could take. Alex knows their social battery was almost gone from it too. “Squirt!” Kevin shouted, sliding around on the ice. “Come skate with me! You’ll like it!” Alex saw no other option but to join him.

When Alex showed up alone, Kevin went still. “Where’s Jack?” That was said more as a statement than a question. When Alex didn’t immediately answer, Kevin said, “Where. Is. Jack.” Alex pointed behind themselves and Kevin beelined it to where Jack was sleeping. 

Alex regretted their decision of pointing Kevin in Jacks direction, because right when Kevin got to the tree, he tackled Jack. Jack ended up waking up screaming. “Jesus, kid, don’t do that!”

“I got scared,” Kevin muttered into Jack’s shoulder. “I thought you left.”

Jack yawned. “You know I wouldn’t leave without telling you.”

“I know, but still. We can go home now if you want.”

“We’re on our way home already, Kiddo, don’t worry. Go have your fun, I’ll be fine.”

“No, I mean we can use one of your shortcuts to go home, so you don’t have to walk.”

Huh. So Kevin  wasn’t  selfish. He sure came off that way, but… Alex didn’t want to tread too much on the thought. They’d only just met these two about fifteen minutes ago. It was too early to be judging either of them like this.

“Nah, it’s okay. Plus, we still need to show Squirt around the rest of the forest.”

“We can do that later if you’re tired.”

“It’s fine, really.” Jack got up and stretched. He was still exhausted.

He got tired easily.

“Let’s keep going.” Kevin’s eyebrows furrowed, but agreed. “I can carry you if you want.”

“I mean, if you really want to, you can.”

Kevin took off the glove on his right hand and gave it to Jack. “I can function without a glove, y’know.”

“Yeah, but carrying you while you’re holding onto me with one hand isn’t fun.”

“Good point.”

Alex didn’t understand what Kevin meant by that. Did Jack not like using his left hand? To try and get an answer, they pointed to their left hand. “You wanna know about our hands?” A nod. “Oh, sure! Jack doesn’t like talking about it, but I don’t see what the big deal is. I mean, it’s just—“

“Nothing,” Jack cut off. “It’s nothing.”

Alex was skeptical, but didn’t press further. They shouldn’t be nosy like that. 

Before they knew it, Kevin was giving Jack a piggyback ride, and they were off again.

“Alright so,” Kevin started, smiling once again. “On that other path? By the ice? There’s a snowman we built a long while ago. We can go back to visit it if you want, but later. I can’t use shortcuts like Jack can, and he should go home.”

Alex tried asking about the shortcuts by making a question mark with their hands. A half heart with one hand and a fist with another. “Are you trying to question my snowman? It’s a great snowman if you ask me,” Kevin joked, chuckling afterwards. “I’m only kidding, I know you mean the shortcuts.” Alex gave a thumbs up. “Yeah, I couldn’t tell you about those. One moment we’re somewhere, and then the next we’re in an entirely different place. It’s probably because of his time-space stuff, but I don’t know.”

Alex still did not understand.

They reached an area that was clear of snow, except some around the edges. “Oh! This is one of the puzzles me and Jack set up!”

Alex gave him a confused look. “It’s an invisible maze! And if you hit the wall, you get shocked! But you can’t get shocked, you don’t have the orb thing that does the shocking. I… forgot to get it from my station.” Kevin smiled sheepishly at that last part. “But since neither of us have the orb,” he continued, walking onto the snowless patch. “You can just walk on!”

It sounded like a cool puzzle, but Alex wouldn’t want to try it if they could. It sounded dangerous. “Ooh! We’re almost at the snowball puzzle! I mean, it’s not required to get through, but it’s fun!”

Moments later, after walking across a bridge, they encountered another, larger patch of snowless ground, with some ice near the bottom. “You should try it! See which flag you get!” Alex took a look at the idle snowball on the ground while Kevin went up ahead. They pushed the snowball with their hand.

It was… a lot more slippery than they expected. The thing flung across the ground, stopping when it lightly bounced off the border. They hit it again, this time towards a small hole in the ground, and the snowball got in. A yellow flag emerged from the hole, which, upon closer inspection, had written on it, ‘Your sure-fire accuracy put an end to the mayhem of “ball.”’ Three coins popped up from the hole as well, and Alex took them. They assumed that was their prize. “Wow, you did that really fast!” Kevin exclaimed, grinning. “It took me a few tries before I could master it!” Alex clapped for him.

Not even a minute later, the three encountered a lone piece of paper on the ground. Alex pointed at it. Kevin squinted his eyes for a moment and then groaned. “Really? This is the puzzle he ‘worked really hard on?’ I knew Jack was lazy but not  that  lazy.”

The paper on the ground was a word search. That was it, that was the puzzle. Just a word search.

Kevin scoffed and walked past it. “I can’t believe him! He’s always doing stuff like this!”

“Y’think it’s funny though,” Jack muttered, his eyes still closed. Maybe he could hear their mostly one-sided conversation. Who knows. “I do and I hate it!”

And that was the end of that conversation. 

A little further down was a table with an unplugged microwave and a can of beans. Kevin took one look at it and sped up. Alex squeaked, and Kevin turned around. “I don’t want to talk about the beans, Squirt, c’mon.”

Alex pointed at the beans anyway, and walked up to the table. There was a note on it, of course, written by Kevin. 

Here you go, sir! Or ma’am, I don’t know who found this… It’s a present for you! Some home cooked beans that I made myself! But they’ll probably be cold by the time you find them, so use the microwave I’ve provided you! Enjoy! -Kevin

P.S. This totally isn’t a trap to stall you until I find you and convert you ;) 

It was an odd note, that was for sure. Alex put it back on the table. They tried picking up the can of beans, but it was stuck to the table. Kevin averted his gaze from Alex, his face turning red. “Can we go now?”

Alex nodded and trotted back to Kevin. As they approached the oncoming puzzle, Kevin said, “Wait!” and stopped in his tracks. “We need to push the switch. It’s over there.” He pointed in front of them. “It’s under the ground. I’ll go down to the spikes and wait for you to push it.”

Wait… Spikes?! Why were there spikes?!

Alex shook his head, clearing his thoughts. He went over to the edge of the land, where the cliff started, and began feeling around on the ground for the switch. After a couple moments, their hand hit something hard. With a bit of pressure, they found out it was a button. “You got it!” Kevin shouted, unsure whether Alex could hear him from down there. Alex ran down to where Kevin was so they could continue.

Kevin, tired of talking practically to himself, asked, “Are you sure you can’t talk? Or do you just choose not to?” Alex shrugged. They don’t remember ever talking, so… They held up their pointer finger to indicate it was the former. “Oh. I mean, okay. That’s fine.” And the conversation fell flat.

Unsurprisingly, a short distance later, there was another puzzle. Kevin began looking tired. Alex pointed to Jack, and Kevin said, “Him? He’s fine, he’s just lazy. I’m kind of used to carrying him around all the time because he burns out quickly.” Alex nodded.

The new puzzle had two rows of snowballs with one in between, and two blue x’s between the sides. “Here, I’ll show you how to do this one, Kevin said, walking towards the puzzle.

He stepped on top of a blue x, only for it to transform into a red circle. He did the same with the other one, then stepped on the pressure plate in the snow. The circles turned green, and the spikes blocking their way retracted. “See? It’s simple, really! Maybe you can try the next one on your own. And by the next one,” Kevin started as they approached another shapes puzzle. “I mean this one.”

Alex didn’t know what the layout was supposed to be. It looked kind of creepy. “I tried to make it a smiley face, but… That didn’t work out too well.”

That  was a smiley face? It didn’t even look close to a smiley face. Kevin needed to work on his building skills. Alex attempted to solve the puzzle without climbing over the frozen snow, but ended up accidentally making one of the red circles a green triangle. “If you ever mess up and make a circle a triangle, you can just press the button,” Kevin motioned to a silver pressure plate, “Over here.”

Alex gave a thumbs up and climbed over the snow making the ‘Smiley face.’ They pressed the pressure plate with their foot. Suddenly, the shapes reverted back to blue x’s. Alex went on to try again, while Kevin quietly tried to wake Jack up again.

His shoulders must hurt by now. Jack’s been asleep most of the way to Snowdin.

Alex managed to solve the puzzle on their third attempt, without any help. They were rather proud of themselves. “Good job, squirt!” Kevin praised, moving forward. Alex followed.

Next, there was a large set of muli-coloured tiles on the floor. “Oh! This is Dr. Thomas’s puzzle! That’s one of Jack’s friends, by the way. He made it for us when we were making our puzzles!”

How was the puzzle supposed to work? Did the tiles change colour? Did different things happen when a different coloured tile was touched? Alex didn’t know. “Dr. Thomas’s been real busy lately, so he can’t fix the machine that makes this thing work right now. Sorry.” Kevin gave a sympathetic smile, although it did look a little forced. “Don’t worry, though. We’re almost at Snowdin.”

That was a relief. Alex didn’t know how much more travelling they could take today.

They passed another sentry station, with snow people built around the open space. There wasn’t much to see, just more trees and snow people.

Afterwards, they encountered more ice, this time with blue x’s over it. “Here, I’ll do it,” Kevin said, doing his best to lift Jack down from his shoulders. Jack ended up falling down with a thud, but he still slept. Kevin rolled his eyes and smiled fondly at him. “This’ll take me a minute, hold on.”

And a minute it did take him. Kevin slid across the ice, changing x’s into o’s with a specific pattern, until suddenly, a bridge topped with snow formed at the end of the puzzle and towards the town. Alex could swear he saw Snowdin town up ahead.

Kevin skated back to come get his brother. “Jack,” he mumbled, gently shaking Jack. Jack muttered back, “What?”

“We’re at Snowdin.”

“Neat.”

“Please wake up, we need to get my cinnarolls.”

“Now?”

“Yes, now. Now please wake up so we can go.”

Jack opened one eye and smirked mischievously. “Did you only wake me up because you want cinnarolls? Not out of the kindness of your heart?”

“Shut up.” Kevin slapped Jack in the arm playfully, and Jack stood up. “I’m kidding, calm down.”

The three of them slid across the ice to the other side, but only two of them made it to the bridge. Alex had fallen down into a pit. “Oh no! Squirt, are you okay?” Kevin shouted down into the pit. Alex gave him a thumbs up. The snow had broken their fall. “Okay, good. I would feel bad if you got hurt!”

“You would feel bad if  anyone  got hurt.”

“Yeah, that’s because I'm a good person,  unlike you. ”

“Ouch.”

Alex tuned out their fighting to look around. The pit was small, but there were two snowmen built there. Well, one, because Alex was pretty sure the lump of snow that had ‘Jack’ written on it with ranch didn’t count. The other one reminded them of a stick figure, just because there was no face to it. It was just a sphere.

Alex climbed up the ramp to their left to get back up.

Once Jack and Kevin had seen Alex climb up, their fighting stopped. Alex guessed it was because they didn’t want some kid involved with their drama. “It’s just a little bit further, Squirt, don’t worry,” Jack said, walking away with Kevin following close behind. Alex went along too.

They were getting closer to the town, Alex noticed. When they all got to the bridge, Kevin said, “This is the gauntlet of deadly terror! I… don’t remember why we built it.”   
“We built it to kill you.”

“No we didn’t!” Kevin shouted. “We aren’t going to kill anyone!”

“There’s literally a cannon at the bottom of this bridge. And fire.  And  there’s spears.”

“I don’t even use spears--”

“James helped build this thing too, remember?”

“...Oh.”

Alex wanted to get off the bridge.

Now they were arguing about the bridge. They should work on… not doing that. It got annoying after awhile. They didn’t even notice they all crossed the bridge until they passed a sign that said, ‘Welcome to Snowdin!’

“Oh! Jack, look, we’re here!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> give kevin his cinnarolls challenge 2020 wijfgkfjgklmao  
also, if you couldnt tell already, i have no idea what im doing lmao but im doing it  
also also, sorry for like,, the gentile thing at the beginning, i keep trying to figure out what mormons call nonmormons and all that shows up is gEnTiLe and i just KNOW thats not correct so like,,,,, sorry if i offended anyone lol  
also also ALSO, if anyone finds a typo let me know because im proof reading in the morning and then working lolol thanks
> 
> update 11/7 uhHhhH i thought the?? italics transferred from google docs to here but i guess not???? hhh im too lazy to edit it im so r r y  
also????? idk i think my phones glitching out but if the same end note is on this chapter from the last cjapter then ignore it idk what happened


	3. Snowdin Town

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i just want to apologize in advance for the jokes that youll run into at the end, i couldnt help myself lmao  
im hilarious  
also there are italics on the google doc but it just— wont transfer. i hate that sjfjghehfhfj but like hdjfjfj im lazy and dont feel like changing anything sorry

Snowdin town was a lot smaller than Alex had expected. From where they were standing, it looked like the entire town was spread across a strip. “Can we get the cinnarolls now?”

“Yeah, just give me a minute. I need a break.”

“The shop is right there!”

The shop was, in fact, right in front of them. Why Jack decided to stop, Alex didn’t know. “You’re just doing this to annoy me!”

“That’s not true, what kind of brother do you think I am?”

“A really lazy one!”

“Ouch.”

Alex had had enough. They were going to go inside the shop without them, get whatever a cinnaroll was for Kevin, and hopefully end the argument there. So, they opened the door, a tiny bell making a chime as they did so, and entered the shop. Kevin gasped, shouting, “Squirt, you can’t order anything! You can’t speak!”

“Calm down, Kev,” Jack said, following Alex inside. “We can order for him.”

Kevin didn’t argue back when he saw the lady at the counter staring at the three of them. Alex pointed to her.

Kevin and Jack shared a look before saying in unison, “Good afternoon, Mrs. Thomas.”

“Hello, Boys,” the lady greeted back. “I heard the argument outside, so… I’m guessing you want some cinnamon rolls?”

Ah. So they were cinnamon rolls. That should’ve been obvious. “That’s right!”

“How many?”

Kevin looked at Jack first, who simply shook his head and reached for his wallet. “Do you want one, Squirt?”

Alex nodded. They liked cinnamon rolls, especially the ones from Cinnabon. “Two, please!”

“Coming right up!”

Alex watched as the lady— Mrs. Thomas— grab two cinnamon rolls from inside the bakery display case and put them inside a box. Alex will have to make sure to come back before they leave for the surface.

After Jack had paid and Kevin’s cinnamon roll was in his hands, the two boys said, “Thank you, Mrs. Thomas! Have a nice day!” and left, Alex not too far behind. “You’re going to love these, Squirt! They’re the best!” Kevin said, grinning. “Right, Jack?”

Jack was already gone. “Jack?”

Kevin looked around for Jack before ultimately deciding to groan and say, “See? This is what I mean by his stupid time-space stuff. He just disappears whenever he wants! Feel free to explore Snowdin, Squirt, I’m gonna go look for him.”

Before Alex could answer, Kevin had ran off in search of Jack. Wonderful.

Now Alex was all alone in an unfamiliar place where anyone could find them and they’ll die.

They might as well make the most of their last living moments and explore.

Right next door to the shop was an inn, which Alex decided against going into. They didn’t have any money, why should they even bother?

Oddly enough, there was an igloo next to the two buildings. They went inside, and slid down a tunnel really fast. They couldn’t really see, it was completely dark.

As the light at the end of the tunnel drew near, they could hear more bickering. Those two need to work on that. “Really?! You use one of your shortcuts to come home and you don’t even go inside?!”

“Door’s locked.”

“You have the key!”

“I do?”

“It’s in your pocket! I can see the outline right there!”

“Oh. Oops.”

Alex wanted to get away from this, so they went back into the igloo to the other side of town. Thank God you could go through it both ways.

They tumbled out and shook their head. Time to explore the town.

The town wasn’t heavily populated, but there were a few people out and about. Like one walking a small white Pomeranian, which Alex waved at shyly. They passed a house, a Christmas tree, oddly enough, and a cafe, which was named ‘Kimbe’s Kafe.”

The spelling of cafe on the sign bothered Alex a lot, but it was probably done like that because whoever ‘Kimbe’ was has a name that starts with a K. They continued on.

Turning a corner, they could see there was a walkway that lead to… somewhere. They went that way, just to avoid Kevin and Jack for a little bit.

When they got past the pine trees, to their left was a lone house that looked like it was built out of wood, and on their right was a shed looking thing with a conveyor belt coming from inside. The conveyor belt sent out ice into the river below, which thoroughly confused Alex. Why would they need ice? Is it not cold enough already here? They continued walking.

Further down was a cliff, with a view of the rushing water. That was pretty much it. Alex didn’t know the purpose of the area.

They walked back, not knowing what else to do over on the separate pathway. They went onto the main one and walked towards the house again. Alex was nearly there.

Before approaching the house, they stopped for a moment to look at the last building. ‘Librarby.’

Illiterate fools. It’s spelled ‘Library.’ Who told you it was spelled that way? Alex didn’t want to go into The Librarby.

Finally, they’ve reached the Price house. It too was made of wood, albeit a darker kind. There were also Christmas lights hung around. Alex noticed it was a lot bigger than the other houses.

Alex looked over to see two mailboxes, side by side. One was Kevin’s, which was completely empty, and the other one was Jack’s. Jack’s mailbox was stuffed with letters, none of which Alex could figure out what they were. Alex decided to knock on the door.

Kevin immediately opened it, smiling. “Hi, Squirt!” His face was dirty, with glaze all over his mouth. “Come in, your cinnaroll’s in the kitchen.”

Alex wiped their feet on the welcome mat and stepped inside. The house was a lot bigger than they were anticipating.

There were two floors; One with the living room and kitchen, and the other with two doors, probably leading to Jack and Kevin’s rooms. On the second floor was a large portrait of young versions of The Brothers, and a large empty space behind them. That was odd to Alex. They tugged at Kevin’s sleeve and pointed upwards. “Oh! You wanna know about the family portrait?”

Alex nodded.

“That’s me and Jack when we were kids. We were around nine if I’m not mistaken.”

Kevin didn’t understand what they were trying to ask him about. They ran up the stairs and pointed to the space behind the two. “I can’t answer that one, Squirt. I’ve always assumed that was a design choice.”

Alex will ask Jack about it later. Right now, Jack was asleep on the couch. Was that a well deserved nap? Probably not. He hasn’t done anything all day, at least from Alex’s knowledge. They went back downstairs.

Like Kevin said, the cinnamon roll was on the counter. However, Alex couldn’t reach it. They were barely at eye level with the counter, there was no way they could even grace it with their fingertips. To draw attention to themselves, they started slapping their hand on the side of the counter to make noise. “Are you okay in here?” Kevin asked, peeking his head through the doorway. Alex pointed to the cinnamon roll, and Kevin looked at them apologetically. “I’m sorry, Squirt, I didn’t realize you couldn’t reach it.” He grabbed the box with the cinnamon roll and handed it to Alex. “Here you go!”

Alex gave him a thumbs up.

They scuttered to the table at the end of the living room and hopped on a chair. Kevin instead chose to sit on top of Jack.

After a few minutes of silence, and Alex eating their cinnamon roll, Kevin asked, do you want to watch something on the television? We have really cool things on there!”

Alex nodded hesitantly. They didn’t know what to expect from Mormon TV. Was it going to be propaganda? Mind control? Who knew.

The TV was turned on, and they were greeted to a chibi drawing of a boy with black hair wearing a construction hat carrying a stack of papers, some of which were flying off. The boy reminded Alex of a robot. The message ‘CMC TV will start soon!’ was written in bold black letters on the top of the screen. Some elevator music played in the background. “Oh! This is my favourite show!” Kevin exclaimed, clasping his hands together. What is? The error message? Alex thought to themselves.

Kevin began to ramble. “So basically, it’s like a uh… What’s the right word for it? A… dance show! Yeah, a dance show! And this robot guy named McKinley comes on, and he teaches you how to dance! Dr. Thomas built him, and he has a soul and he looks like a real person and everything! He’s really cool!”

The robot did sound cool. Alex wanted to see it.

“What time is it?” Kevin asked, and looked at the clock on the wall. “Oh, shoot, it’s three. The show doesn’t start until five.” Would Alex bother sticking around for a couple hours just to see the robot on TV? Maybe. As long as the brothers didn’t fight the entire time, they would. Alex assumed it looked like the boy in the drawing, just as a life-sized robot that looked like a human person. “In the meantime, do you want to do something?”

Alex didn’t know what they would want to do in here. It wasn’t their house, and they didn’t want to intrude more than they already had. Given, they were invited into their home, but still. They had common decency. “We can go into my room if you want. Not to do anything weird, just so you won’t get bored.” Alex agreed to go.

They went up the stairs and into the room with the door labelled ‘Kevin’s room!’ in bright blue letters. What the letters were made of were not entirely clear, but Alex was going to take a guess and say paper and marker.

In the room was a medium-sized bed, a table full of various things, an old macintosh computer that was probably from the 80’s, and a box full of… something. “It’s not that interesting, I know,” Kevin said, scratching the back of his head. Alex didn’t mind. They didn’t think their room was cool either.

They walked up to the table first, to inspect the items on top of it. As they’d suspected earlier, there were Pokemon cards, one of which was an old, beat up Squirtle card. There were also action figures and even a Funko Pop, all either equally or more dirty than the cards. “Do you like my stuff?” Kevin asked, laying down on his bed. “I found it all at the trash dump!”

Disgusting. Alex didn’t want to touch any of it anymore. “I think my favourite has to be the one with the big head and the small body. The one holding the flashlight. He reminds me of me when I was younger.” Alex didn’t recognize the character, but was somewhat sure his name was something along the lines of ‘Bill.’ There wasn’t a box to tell.

Kevin stretched and turned over onto his stomach. “Feel free to look wherever. I’ll just be here, probably dozing off like Jack did.”

Alex, unsure where to go from the table, went up to the closet and opened it. Inside were several pairs of black pants, a few white collared shirts, and a baby blue hoodie. Alex guessed that the hoodie was there as a match to Jack’s. They didn’t think they could imagine Kevin wearing it.

They closed the closet and went to the computer. They couldn’t get on, however, because there was a password to it. They left it be.

The last place to look was the random box of stuff at the corner of the room. Alex went to sift through it.

As it turns out, it was just clothes. They were probably old and worn, that’s why they were in the box. Or maybe it was a laundry box. Alex didn’t know, but didn’t bother asking a question about it.

Not having anything left to do, Alex left the room and went back downstairs. Kevin did not follow, for he was already asleep.

Alex decided to look through the fridge. Going inside Jack’s room without asking would be an invasion of privacy, so Alex opted for the fridge instead.

There were various tubs of leftover beans, as well as a take home bag from a restaurant. Maybe it was from Kimbe’s, Alex didn’t know. It probably was.

The beans didn’t look edible, and the take home food wasn’t theirs, so Alex didn’t touch it. They had morals that they weren’t going to break just because they wanted some actual food.

Now they didn’t know what to do. Maybe they should try going to the next town over…?

No. That would be too dangerous for them alone. They should wait for at least one of the boys to wake up.

They went back to the living room. The TV was still on, so maybe they could find a channel that had something watchable. They walked up to it.

The drawing of the robot man was still on the screen, and was still accompanied by elevator music. At least, that’s what Alex assumed elevator music sounded like. Elevators didn’t really have music in them anymore.

They turned the knob on the side, being greeted by static. Flip. Static. Flip. Static. Flip. They could barely see through the static, but they’d turned on Nickelodeon. Alex went to push the chair from the table in front of the TV. Spongebob was currently on, and Alex liked Spongebob.

.

“Fuck, what time is it?” Jack muttered, rubbing his eyes. His back was stiff, and his joints ached. That’s what he gets for sleeping on the couch again.

He turned around, facing the rest of the room, to see Alex staring straight at him. He yawned, and then smirked. “Oh, Squirt. You’re still here.”

Alex, who had managed to find crayons and paper somewhere earlier, wrote down, ‘You said a swear.’ and held it up for Jack to see. “Oh I did?” he replied unfazed. “Fuck, I’m sorry— Wait shit I just did it again— Oops.”

Alex scribbled down on the paper again. ‘Kevin wouldn’t be happy about this.’

“Don’t tell Kevin.”

Alex threw up a thumbs up. “Thanks, Kiddo. Now uh… Where is he?” They pointed to the stairs. “Thanks again.” And with that, Jack disappeared.

Not a moment later, there was a scream from upstairs. “Don’t do that! You scared me half to death!”

Jack’s reply was muffled. Alex couldn’t understand what he said. “Payback for what?! I didn’t do anything!”

Pause. “Well that was different! I was worried! ...I apologized didn’t I?! There shouldn’t be a need for payback!”

The door slammed open. “Dear gosh, I can’t believe you!”

“Why are you so mad? I was just dropping in to say hello.”

“You landed on top of me! At full force!”

“Oops.”

“Don’t oops me! You did it on purpose.”

“Maybe I did. But so would Joe.”

Alex knew what was coming next. They had to cover their mouth to stifle the giggles threatening to escape their lips. “Who’s Joe?!”

“Joe mama.”

All hell has broken loose. Kevin started screaming while Jack was in an uncontrollable laughing fit. Alex was almost in the same state as Jack. “I hate you!”

Jack physically could not handle how funny his joke was. He was clutching his sides and, from the sound of it, he could barely breathe. “I can’t believe that actually worked!”

“Shut up!”

Alex went to go get the crayon and paper again. They scribbled something down on and went over to show Jack. Jack saw it and his laughs subdued. “I don’t get it, I don’t know what that is.”

Alex ran over to show Kevin too. Kevin shouted, “What’s ligma?!”

Alex scribbled down a few more words. “Ligma ba— That is so disgusting!”

At that point, Jack looked pretty much like that laugh-crying emoji with the wide eyes that Alex saw online. “Kev, can you believe it?! The kid’s a genius!”

“Who taught you to be so inappropriate?! Do your parents not have morals?!”

“I love this kid, I want to keep him!”

“You’re both terrible people!”

Jack stood up, his laughing fit finally over. He snickered a couple times, before sighing. “That was great, Kiddo.”

Alex thumbs upped. “But really, I think it’s time for him to move on. He’s still got a long way to go if he ever wants to go home.”

“But—“ Kevin began, his angry face dropping. “—Why? Can’t he just stay with us?”

“He has his own family, y’know. It would kinda be like if you and me got seperated for maybe five minutes, like you would be screaming trying to find me and you would look like an idiot while doing so.”

“Hey!”

“I’m joking, calm down. His parents are probably worried sick about him.” Kevin crossed his arms and turned his head to the side. “I mean… I guess. Squirt, do you want to stay with us? Or do you want to go home?”

Alex grabbed the crayon yet again, and wrote down, ‘Home.’ They didn’t want to leave, but Jack had a point. Their parents must be worried. Kevin sighed in defeat. “Fine.”

“Don’t worry, Kiddo,” Jack started, putting a hand on Kevin’s shoulder. “I bet we’ll see him again.”

Kevin looked down, then up at Jack again. “But what if we don’t?”

“Then he’ll live on in our memory. Here, uh… Kid, do you have a phone?”

“Why would he have a phone? He’s, like, nine.”

Alex pulled out their flip phone and handed it to Jack. “Dang, this thing is probably older than we are.”

“Don’t insult his phone, he’s probably poor!”

Jack typed into the phone, while saying, “Still. He could’ve at least managed to get something newer. Here you go.” Alex got their phone back, only to see Kevin and Jack were added to their contact list. “Now you can talk to us whenever you want.”

“You gave him our phone number?”

“Yeah.”

Kevin cracked a tiny smile. “See, you’re feeling better already. Now really, we should probably walk Squirt to the end of Snowdin. It’s the least we could do.” Alex appreciated the offer.

“Yeah, you’re right,” Kevin said, walking towards the door. “Plus, you’re probably sick of how cold it is here, aren’t you? You’d like Waterfall better anyway.”

These people really need to work on their names too, Alex thought. Jack went out the door after Kevin, and Alex followed closely behind.

“You’re gonna come back to visit us before you leave, right, Squirt?” Kevin asked as they began walking towards a foggy area. “He probably will, he’s not that rude.”

“You’re one to talk. You woke me up from my nap in the rudest way possible.”

“So did you, so.”

“Dear gosh, I said I was sorry!”

The fog was getting thick. Alex could barely see. They could, however, see Jack’s hoodie sleeve, so they grabbed onto it for guidance. “Why do I feel so bad that you’re leaving?” Jack asked Alex. “Usually I don’t care about people I met an hour ago.”

“See, you’re so rude!”

Alex would miss them, but not their arguments.

“It’s a joke, calm down.”

The fog began to lessen, and Alex could see bluish-violet rocks in the distance lining the walls of a cavern. They assumed that was Waterfall. They stopped right where the fog stopped. “I’m going to miss you, Squirt,” Kevin said, bending down to hug Alex.

Usually Alex would push away anyone that tried to hug them, but this time they’ll make an exception. “Ditto, Kid. You’re a cool little dude.”

Kevin rose back up and latched onto Jack’s arm. “Bye, Squirt!”

“See ya, Kiddo.”

And with that, Alex went towards Waterfall. They had a feeling this place wasn’t going to be as friendly

.

.

.

After Jack used one of his shortcuts to bring him and Kevin home, Kevin pulled out his phone. “What are you doing?”

“I’m telling James that Squirt’s gonna be in Waterfall! Then he can capture him, convert him, and everything will be fine!”

Jack looked away. “You don’t want to do that.”

“Course I do! Here, I’ll do it right now.” Jack didn’t want to watch this go down. He said, “Have fun with that, then.” and went back inside the house.

It took two rings before James picked up the phone. “Hi James!”

“Kevin,” James greeted coldly. “What can I do for you?”

“Oh, I don’t need a favour or anything. I just wanted to let you know there’s a kid who fell from the surface coming your way!”

“Oh?”

“Yeah! He’s a short little guy, has a blue striped shirt, blond hair, you’ll know who he is when you see him!”

The sound of metal clunking could be heard on the other end of the line. “Thanks, Kevin. I’ll be sure to say hello.”

“Great! ...Do I get to be in The Royal Guard for helping you catch a ge— Non-Mormon?”

“I’ll consider it.”

“Yay! Thank you!”

The line was cut. Kevin dashed into the house, yelling, “Jack! James said he’ll let me into The Royal Guard now!”

“Great news, Kiddo,” Jack called from the second floor. “I’m proud.”

Even though he was proud, Jack couldn’t help but feel guilty for not at least trying to prevent Alex’s inevitable fate. Oh well, it’s too late. It’s up to James to decide what happens now.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> bruh moment when you accidentally tell your unofficial boss that theres a kid from the surface, unknowingly causing their demise (allegedly)  
also hhhhhfjfhgjfj im not ready to say goodbye to my boys yet but hhhhhhh i have to progress the story :’/  
also— im so sorry but i literally had to take the opportunity to reference it (the movie) and my bill denbrough funko pop ok i just had to dont @ me skdjjfjfjjf  
also, i had to get rid of the end note for chapter 1 because it just— kept going under every single chapter and i didnt know how to fix it  
but basically, i post updates everyday on my tumblr @/kevinscoffeecup and theyre under the tags “tylers novel log” and “viva la mormontale!” so theres that lol  
ok bye skfjkfkfkg


	4. Kimbe’s

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i finished this last night at like 2am but waited until today to revise it because its short oops  
leaving this in the waterfall chapter felt wrong so its. its own chapter yeehaw

Nearing the entrance to Waterfall, Alex wondered if the people there would be as nice as they were in Snowdin. Maybe they were. They didn’t know, they still have a ways to go in their journey.

They stepped into the cavern, their footsteps making echoes inside. It felt sort of ominous.

A little bit further down, there were two waterfalls flowing down into an abyss from up top of them. Where the water came from, they didn’t know.

And then, as if things couldn’t get stranger, there was a sentry station, with snow on top of it’s roof. None other than Jack was inside of it. “Boo,” he said as Alex walked towards him. “Why are you looking at me like that? Haven’t you seen a guy work two jobs before?”

No, Alex hasn’t seen a guy work two jobs before. In fact, they’ve never seen a guy work two jobs that were  _ exactly the same _ . “Y’know what two jobs mean though?”

Alex shook their head. “Twice as many legally required breaks.”

That’s cool, Alex thought sarcastically. It’s not like Jack just took an hour long break to hang out with them and Kevin or anything. Yikes. “Anyway, I’m hungry and I want food. Wanna come with me to get some? I know a shortcut.”

Food sounded nice. Alex accepted. “Great. C’mon, follow me,” Jack said, walking into the direction Alex was going to.

In an instant, the two were right in front of Kimbe’s Kafe. Alex glared at Jack. They were just in Snowdin, why couldn’t they come here then? Jack was weird.

The door opened, and Alex could see a bunch of people were inside. One sitting in a booth looked over at them and said, “Hi, Jack!”

This caused a chorus of ‘Hellos’ to be directed towards them. Alex didn’t know what to do. 

When they got up to the counter at the back, a man sitting there said, “Weren’t you just here like, two hours ago?”

“Yeah, but that was for lunch. I’m here for dinner now.”

Nothing could describe the disappointment Alex was feeling. They knew Jack was a slacker, but this was unbelievable. For all they knew, Jack had probably  _ just  _ gotten back to his post before Alex showed up. “Ring ring, Kimberly, you have guests.”

“For the last time, my name is Kimbe,” a tall, dark woman said. She was cleaning a glass before Jack had said anything, but now it was put down. “What do you want?”

“Uh,” Jack mumbled, and looked at Alex. “You want a burger or something?”

Alex shrugged. Sure, why not? “Alright, then. Two burgers and a bottle of ranch, please.”

...Ranch? Why would they need ranch for burgers? That sounds disgusting. “Coming right up,” Kimbe said, walking into the back to make their food. “So, Squirt,” Jack began, tapping his fingers on the hardwood of the counter. “Is your refrigerator running at home?”

Alex shook their head. “Well you better go catch it!” Jack started laughing at his own joke. Alex found it kind of old-school. That’s something kids in the 80’s would say during a prank call. Then again, these people mostly lived in the 80’s, sans the bright neon lights and horrendous outfits everywhere. “But in all serious, I wanted to talk to you about something,” Jack added, his laughter subdued. Right as he said this, their burgers (and ranch) had arrived. “Thanks, Kimberly!”

“Kimbe!”

Alex didn’t understand why Jack was continuously getting the woman's name wrong. She kept correcting him, so he should have learnt it by now. “That’s what I said. Anyway.” Jack turned to Alex. “Do you want ranch with your burger?” Alex shook their head. That’s disgusting. “Suit yourself.”

Jack flung the cap off the ranch and began drinking it. Absolutely appalling. This was the first  _ and  _ last time Alex would be going out to eat with Jack. “So, like I was saying, I wanted to talk to you,” Jack said, wiping the ranch away from his mouth. Alex listened.

“You’re going to meet a very dangerous person pretty soon. You’ve heard his name already, it’s James. He wouldn’t hesitate to kill you given the chance.” Alex didn’t like the sound of that. “But don’t worry, I’m sure you can convince him not to kill you. He’s kind of a dummy.”

That was rude. Alex scowled. “I’m not saying that in a bad way, but the man believes that— You ever heard of anime? Okay, the man believes anime is actually human history because Thomas, that’s a friend of mine, told him so.”

Unbelievable. How could anyone believe anime was real? There were no people with magic powers and there were no people with swords bigger than their entire bodies. Alex took a bite of their burger to avoid thinking about how dumb James sounded.

In reality, James probably wasn’t dumb. He’s the head of an army for a reason. “That was the first thing I wanted to talk about. The other thing, though…”

Suddenly, everything stopped around them. The people were frozen, the low-volume music wasn’t playing… Alex went wide-eyed. “I’m sure you have a bunch of questions about me and Kev.” Alex nodded. The two were strange, and Alex would preferably like to know why. “Don’t think about those questions.”

Huh? “Me and Kev have a… complex past. And you’re pretty young, so I wouldn’t want to tell you all the stuff we’ve been through and traumatize you in the process just because you want to understand why we are the way we are.”

Jeez, it couldn’t be  _ that  _ bad. Alex was twelve, they could probably handle hearing about what happened to them. “Anyway, don’t try asking Kevin about it either. He doesn’t remember. I mean, there’s a reason for that, but…” Jack looked down solemnly. “I don’t like thinking about it.”

After that, everything started to move again. “Wonderful chat that was, Squirt. Thanks for listening,” Jack said, finally deciding to eat his food. “Damn this is good,” Alex could hear him muttering under his breath. It was mediocre at best, at least in Alex’s opinion. “Can you put this on my tab?” Jack directed his question towards Kimbe. “Your tab is over two hundred G, pay for it now.”

“C’mon, Kim,” Jack whined, slouching over onto the counter. “Twenty ain’t much.”

“But two hundred twenty is.”

Jack rolled his eyes. “Okay, fine.” He fished his wallet from his pocket and handed over a few coins to Kimbe. “Thank you.”

“Again, thanks for coming with me, Squirt,” Jack said to Alex, patting his back. “I appreciate it.”

Alex gave a thumbs up as a you’re welcome. “I should probably get you back to Waterfall so you continue your travelling. If you run into Kevin, don’t tell him I brought you here. He’ll kill me.” Another thumbs up. “Thanks a trillion.”

They walked out the door, Jack getting a few goodbyes as they did, and they were instantly in the same area they were in when Alex had run into Jack. “Have fun, Kiddo,” Jack said, walking back to his sentry station.

_ Now  _ their journey can continue.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> in the gracious words of richie tozier,  
i fucked your mom


	5. Waterfall

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so like. yesterday i didnt write or else this chapter wouldve been finished already ahdjfjf instead i made the executive decision to write a reddie fic instead (and im debating whether or not to post it bc its kinda ooc oops)  
also. james is big tough guy after his childhood with his dad he isnt soFt like you guys want him to be hes. big!! and stronk!! and will kill you if you breathe the same air as him  
im jk but like— i want more not soft james and here it is  
also. no spoilers but kyle is baby  
whos kyle?  
youll soon find out *snaps twig*

After passing Jack’s sentry station, they were greeted with a large waterfall at their side, with rocks flowing down the stream. To avoid being hit by said rocks, they sprinted across the bridge connecting the land to the other side of the waterfall. Someone needed to do something about that.

A bit further was a patch of tall grass. The grass was taller than Alex, but there was no way around it in view. Alex began walking through.

Just then, they could hear the sound of metal hitting floor above them. It reminded Alex of a knight, covered in armour. The footsteps stopped, and Alex walked a little more. The sound of the grass being rustled, however, alerted whoever was on the ledge above them, and they froze. Alex heard a ‘fwoosh’ sound, which made them instantly think about spears.

They now assumed the person above was James.

After a few agonizing moments, Alex heard footsteps again, this time away from them. They let out a sigh of relief and made their way out of the grass.

That was terrifying.

A few steps away from the grass, a kid, looking about the same age as Alex, ran out of the grass too. “Did you see that?!” the kid said ecstatically. “That was so cool!”

The terrifying man out to get them was cool? Yeah, right. “That was James! He beats up bad guys and gives their souls to The King!”

Yup. Terrifying. “Don’t tell anyone I’m here, okay? I’m gonna go see if I can catch James fighting for real!” And with that, the kid ran into Waterfall.

Now that Alex thought about it, they saw that kid in Snowdin too. He was by the Christmas tree, doing… something. Alex wasn’t paying enough attention to notice. They didn’t think about it too hard, and went on again.

After a few minutes, they encountered a bridge, this time being made by flowers. At least, that’s what Alex thought they were. They were big, big enough to create a bridge with only four of them, and they had pink petals that faded into blue in the middle. Alex hesitantly stepped on one.

The flower sunk a little bit into the water, but other than that, it seemed safe to cross. Alex gently stepped onto the flowers and to the other side, trying not to fall. They didn’t  _ really  _ trust the flowers as a bridge over water. They made it safely across, though.

After that, they crossed another bridge, this time made with wood, into a room with no other bridges and two bodies of water. In the centre were four large flower buds. A bell was on the wall.

Alex went up and rung the bell. Nothing happened.

Assuming these were buds of the same flowers they had encountered moments earlier, Alex picked one up and let it float into the water. It hit the wall and nothing happened. Alex didn’t know what else to do, so they went to read the sign up on the wall.

The sign gave instructions on how to solve the puzzle. Place four flower buds in a row to make them blossom. Easy enough.

They grabbed the remaining buds, one at a time, and sent them down next to the first one. The flowers budded, creating a bridge. Alex walked across. 

In the next room, there were glowing, neon blue flowers spread around and gemstones shining on the ceiling. Alex went up to one of the flowers. “I want to see the real stars someday,” it said, freaking out Alex. Why was the flower talking to them?!

It kept repeating the phrase, “I want to see the real stars someday,” and Alex ran away. That was too scary for them.

After that, it looked like there was a ferry dock. That room was especially dark, because they couldn’t see anything past it. They walked towards the darkness.

There was a block at the edge of the dock, just about the size of Alex. They stepped on top of it and began drifting towards wherever it would stop.

Standing on the block made Alex uneasy. This seemed  _ very  _ unsafe, especially for them.

They made it to the other side and quickly hopped off, not wanting to be on it longer than they had to. That thing is most certainly a safety hazard.

Now they were on another dock, that looked identical to the last. On one side there were water sausages in the water, and on the other were pillars of rocks… or something. Whatever. Alex began walking down.

A few seconds later, a blue spear was chucked in their direction. It nearly hit them, mere inches away from their feet. It was a large spear, and it’s tip was now stuck in the bridge. On their left where the rock pillars were, was a man in armour— James, Alex decided— ready to throw more spears in Their direction. They began to run.

They were petrified at the moment. Spears chased them as they ran down the dock, along with James, who followed them until the end of the dock.

At the end of the dock, there was finally land again. And more tall grass. Alex decided to run into the tall grass and hide.

James followed them in. Alex froze in fear, knowing that James was going to get them now.

Alex could see the top of James’s helmet above the grass. They didn’t know whether that was a good thing or a bad thing.

They could also see James’s arm grab onto something inside the tall grass. That thing, however, was not Alex. Instead, it was the boy from earlier that really liked James.

Despite having James’s hand wrapped around his neck, the boy was smiling widely. Alex could see James dropping him and heard him say, “Sorry, Kid. Looking for someone else.”

And then, James walked away.

Alex sighed again, and walked out of the grass again. The boy followed them. “Wow! Did you see that?!” The boy said. “James was right there! And he grabbed me! That was so cool!”

Alex and the kid had very different ideas of cool. “If you’d been standing just a little to the left, he would’ve grabbed you instead! That’s so unlucky, dude!” No, Alex thought. They were extremely lucky. “Don’t worry, though! I bet we’ll see him again soon!” And after that, the kid ran ahead again.

He’s odd, Alex thought to themselves. But he’s kind of fun to be around. They continued on.

A little bit afterwards, there was a lone piece of cheese on a table, along with another one of those neon blue flowers. The cheese was encased in a pink crystal, that was probably stuck to the table. That sucks for the mouse that lived in the hole behind the table.

A few steps later, into another part of the cavern there was… Jack. He’s  _ everywhere.  _ “Hey Squirt!”

Jack was standing next to a telescope, that of which he was gesturing to. “Wanna look through the telescope? It’s only fifty thousand G.”

Alex was not amused. And they didn’t have money, especially not in that amount. “Y’know what? Since you’re my friend, I’ll let you look through it for free. Deal?”

Sure, why not? They stepped up to the telescope and looked through. All they could see was red. There was  _ just _ red. 

Alex stood up after looking through. Jack snickered once they looked at him. Alex scowled and pointed to their eye. “What? I didn’t do anything to your eye. Don’t look at me like that, nothing’s wrong.”

Alex approached a nearby woman, whom of which was just standing around, and pointed at their eye. “Oh gosh, you have some red paint on your face,” the woman said as she looked down at them. “You should go get that cleaned off somewhere.”

They were not happy. Jack, however, was having a blast, holding his hand to his mouth, trying not to laugh. Alex ran up to him and slapped his arm. It was a weak slap, but a slap nonetheless. “Come on, don’t be that way,” Jack said, still covering his mouth. “That’s hilarious.”

Alex stormed off. They were getting sick of Jack’s shenanigans.

Around the corner was a series of bridges above a large body of a neon blue… substance. Alex didn’t think it was water. Water shouldn’t glow like that.

Hopefully they wouldn’t get lost.

The islands the bridges connected to where black, with glowing patches of grass spread about. Alex felt a bit bad for stepping on them. 

The bridges were very confusing to navigate. They were almost built like a puzzle. That was unnecessary work, Alex thought.

A lot of those flowers were spread on the islands too. Alex avoided them at all costs. They were really freaky, and they didn’t like them at all.

Finally, Alex had made it to another part of solid land. There was a sign on the wall, but they had passed many signs before this point. It probably told a story of some sort, and Alex would be lost if they tried to read it now.

The path from the bridges onto the land led to an enclosed room with water covering the entire floor. Except, there was a black bridge now. Great. They went on it.

Alex didn’t understand the point of this room. All it was was a long walk towards the exit, and they were surrounded by water. It took a few minutes to get to the exit, but they persisted.

There was another waterfall coming down from the ceiling. This place was probably named after all the waterfalls that were there. Alex looked to their left and saw a young girl in a corner, trying to scrunch into herself. She looked like she didn’t want to be seen. Alex could relate to that.

They left her alone. Maybe she didn’t want to be bothered, and that’s why she’s there. Alex shouldn’t invade her space.

There were two ways that Alex could go from there. To the left or forward. They decided to go to the left first.

In the room was a small piano. Alex liked piano, so they went up to it and started pushing down random keys that sort of made a melody. This was fun.

However, they had to continue onwards, so they bid a quiet farewell to the piano and went to the other path. 

A couple moments later, Alex encountered a statue. The statue was made of stone, and it had sunlight beaming down on it. There was also rain drizzling on it too. Alex kind of felt bad.

The statue reminded them of a person, more specifically a child. But if it was a statue of a child, why would it be here in the middle of nowhere? That made them confused.

In the next room, there was a bin of umbrellas and a sign.  _ Please take one _ , the sign read. Alex took one.

Alex looked back towards the statue and frowned. It shouldn’t be sitting there getting wet. At least, that’s what Alex thought. So, they decided to bring the umbrella to the statue.

Since the statue was in a slouching position, with its arms in a pose that could carry something, they put the umbrella into the statue’s hands. A music box began to play inside of it.

The music had a nice, simple melody to it. It reminded Alex of childhood. They didn’t know how to put that into words.

They went back to the umbrellas, not before waving goodbye to the statue. They took another one, seeing the drizzle that was up ahead. 

There were waterfalls where the rain was too. There were… a lot of waterfalls. And, there were puddles on the ground. Alex looked down at the first puddle, only to see their reflection staring back at them. They looked like a mess. A happy mess, to be exact. They walked through.

In the middle of their walk in the rain, they encountered the boy again. He was in a cubby-like space, trying to avoid the rain. “Oh hey! It’s you again!” The boy gasped and put his hands to his cheeks. “Oh! You have an umbrella! Do you mind if I tag along with you? I don’t have my own.” Alex nodded, and the boy ran to go under the umbrella. “Thanks dude!”

They went off in silence for a couple minutes, before the boy spoke up and said, “I don’t think I got your name, man. Mine’s Kyle, so… What’s yours?”

Alex took out their flip phone, ultimately deciding that texting out their name would be easier than spelling it out with their hands. ‘A-L-E-X.’ This was the first time they had told anyone down here their name, they think. Huh.

“Oh cool! It’s nice to meet you, Alex!” Alex smiled. They liked Kyle.

After awhile, the puddles had stopped forming. However, the rain didn’t stop where the puddles did, as it continued on in a dark, narrow hallway. 

“Isn’t James the coolest?” Kyle asked, putting his hands behind his back as he spoke. No. James absolutely was not cool. He’s trying to  _ kill  _ Alex. They didn’t say anything though. “I mean, he goes around kicking all the bad guys’s butts! If I weren’t a Mormon, I would be  _ so  _ scared because James would kick my butt.”

Alex droned Kyle out. It wasn’t intentional or anything, they just started staring at the wall for some reason. “This is somewhat unrelated, but one time, for a school project, we had to take care of flowers. The King, who we had to call Mr. Cunningham, donated his own flowers for us. He ended up lecturing us about responsibility for some reason.”

That was nice…? Alex didn’t really care, but listened anyway. “Wouldn’t it be so cool if James came to school though? He’d beat up all the teachers so we wouldn’t have homework anymore! ...Actually, no he wouldn’t.” He wouldn’t? That sounds like something he would  _ totally  _ do. “James would never hurt an innocent person.”

That was a lie. Alex was an innocent person but here they were, getting chased down by James who wanted to hurt them. Alex didn’t tell Kyle that, though. Kyle wouldn’t like hearing that his idol was hunting down some random kid. They turned a corner.

They were outside of the caverns of Waterfall now. It was very dark, but in the distance they could see a castle. It was white, and had blue tips at the top of it. various buildings surrounded it too. The view was magnificent.

After a few steps, Kyle ran ahead, to about the middle of the passageway. He observed the castle. As Alex approached, he said, “Wow! Look at that! I think that’s The King’s castle! How cool is that?”

Very, Alex thought. It was a beautiful castle. Alex walked past Kyle, and Kyle followed them again.

They entered another cavern, that of which had rocks aligned as an archway for the entrance. Inside, there was a ledge that was too high for either of the kids to climb onto. Kyle frowned. “How are we supposed to get up there?”

Alex shrugged. They didn’t have the answer to that. They put their umbrella into the umbrella bin in the room.

Suddenly, Kyle’s face lit up. “Oh! You can climb on my shoulders!” Kyle ran up to the ledge and put his back against the wall. “Here! Climb up!” Alex wasn’t sure about this. What if they hurt him? What if they fell off and hurt  _ themselves _ ?

Alex took a deep breath and climbed up onto Kyle’s shoulders. They hoisted themselves up onto the ledge, immediately going to lay on their belly. They extended a hand for Kyle to come up too. However, even when on his tippy-toes, Kyle couldn’t reach. “Bummer, man. Guess you’ll have to go on without me.”

It was Alex’s turn to frown now. “Don’t worry! I’ll find a way to get around! See ya, dude!” Kyle ran away again, waving back as he did so. 

Great. Now Alex was alone again. James’ll probably ambush them again pretty soon.

Following the path alone once again, Alex looked down. They wondered if they were going to see Kyle again before being killed by James. Kyle was a nice friend.

They were on, yet again, a path of bridges. This time, the bridges didn’t have water under them. It was an empty abyss. They walked for a tiny bit before they were stopped in their tracks by a spear being stabbed through the bridge right in front of them. Alex gasped in shock.

All of a sudden, spears were circling around them until they all were pulled out at once. Alex started running.

Of course, James was below them on the path of bridges under them. He was throwing spears left and right to try and stab Alex with one, to no avail. It was hard to dodge them due to the path being so small, but Alex barely avoided them.

The bridges lead up to a large platform, still made by wood and still above an abyss. They followed it up to the end of it, only to find there was nothing branching out of it. Alex was trapped. 

They turned around to go back, only to be greeted by James looming over them, in all his threatening, metal glory. Alex could see his eyes narrow before spears were thrown into the platform, and Alex could feel themselves falling.

.

When they woke up, they were on another bed of daisies. This was very reminiscent of their arrival to The Underground.

They stood up and brushed themselves off. They looked around and saw that they were surrounded by water, a large waterfall, and piles of garbage. Alex gagged.

But why were daisies growing in the water? They shouldn’t be able to do that. They went off, trying to get out of the water as fast as possible, stepping on every piece of the broken bridge they fell off of at every chance they got.

They stopped for a moment when they looked at a large pile of trash. There were a lot of things from the surface up there. One item caught their eye, though. They took a deep breath and waded through the water to go grab it.

The thing they saw? Another one of those Funko Pops. This time, the one they grabbed was a boy with curly hair and a red collared shirt holding a pipe. Alex decided to name him Stanley.

They’ll give Stanley to Kevin later. Maybe that means Bill can have a friend. They put him in their pocket and moved on.

After passing heaps of garbage, they found a beat-up training dummy, sitting in the water. It looked just like the one in The Ruins, albeit a bit moldy and with stab wounds. As a hello, Alex waved at it, then walked away.

They were met with five different directions they could go. three different ways forward, one to the left, and one to the right. They decided to go up first, on the left path.

In that way, there was a secluded house with another training dummy at the front. The house sort of frightened them, so they went back. On the second path, there were two other houses. One was red and one was blue. Alex didn’t feel like intruding, so they didn’t knock. However, looking to the side, they could see there was a pen full of snails. Why snails? They didn’t know. They went over to investigate.

There were various types of snails inside the pen. They just kind of slithered around, not doing much. Snails are kind of gross. They walked back into the large room.

They went to the left side now, which lead to a small yellow bird sitting by the edge of more neon blue substance. Alex walked over and pet the bird, then went away.

They noticed a sign in the corner, and went to go read it.  _ North: Snail Acres. East: Hotland. ???: Dog Village. _

Out of all three of those, Alex wanted to go see Dog Village the most. Given, they’d already explored ‘Snail Acres’ and got bored, but Alex liked dogs. They went east. They encountered another two paths. One to the right and one forward. There was also a doorway to, what Alex could tell, a shop. They still didn’t have any money, so they went right.

There was another empty space, with a ledge leading to nothing but water. It reminded Alex of the space in Snowdin, with the ledge leading to water too. They had a feeling this place would be important later. Shaking their head to cast away the thought, they went back and went east again.

There were, unsurprisingly, more waterfalls, this time in a large open space. They were separated into medium-sized waterfalls, and the blue flowers were behind them too. Alex was still afraid of the flowers. They went forward.

There was no denying Waterfall was a beautiful place. Alex had never seen anything like it. Then again, they hadn’t seen much of anything. They didn’t really get around outside their hometown. Still. They kind of liked it here, if they ignored the guy trying to impale them.

At last, there was a puzzle. At least, that’s what Alex thought it was. There was some brightly lit grass circling around a glowing white mushroom. There was also a blue glowing… thing, that kind of looked like a tree of some sort with blue fire on top, scattered around the darkness. Alex assumed that the way to get through the puzzle was to push the mushroom like a button.

And that’s what they did. More grass illuminated, and it created a path. Alex followed it.

It was a pretty mundane puzzle if you asked them. Just… hit the mushrooms and follow the path. Until they hit a stop. Sighing, they walked all the way to the beginning and onto the new path that lead them to the exit of the room. However, they noticed a path at the bottom of the room that formed too. That one piqued their interest, so they went back to where they were before and went down the path at the bottom.

Alex couldn’t believe what they were seeing. A bunch of small white dogs were in an enclosed room, doing a bunch of dog things. This must be Dog Village.

Noticing the child in their presence, the dogs all barked and pounced onto Alex. It took them by surprise, but Alex didn’t fall down. They tried petting as many dogs as they could, although it was hard because of how many were jumping on them.

Once the dogs had settled down, Alex took a look around. There was a crudely drawn picture of a dog on top of a dragon, and there was a hole in the middle of the wall leading to somewhere. They inspected the drawing first.

It was held up with a thumbtack, and there was a plaque underneath.  _ History of dog. Very neat. _

Very neat indeed. They went into the hole into the wall, to reveal a small shop. A dog was behind the counter. It has things to sell.

The dog saw Alex, and they poked their head under the counter, only to bring up a plastic bag. Alex took it.

There was a red ball inside the bag, that, when squeezed, made a squeak. Presumably, this was to play with the dogs. Alex threw the ball up, and the dog caught it with its mouth. Alex clapped and pet the dog, ruffling the fur on its head. They waved goodbye and went to play with the rest of the dogs.

The dogs stormed them once again, jumping excitedly at the sight of the red ball. Alex threw it up, and the dogs all jumped to catch it. The one who did brought it back to Alex eagerly, and the dogs all awaited the next throw. Fwoosh. The ball was thrown. The dogs ran off to catch it once more. They did this a few more times before Alex ultimately decided to return the ball, wave goodbye, and go on their merry way.

They went around the glowing grass path and out the other side. The next path had lanterns scattered around the paths, and they were getting dimmer the longer Alex stood around, and hidden pink crystals illuminating as the darkness grew.

They touched the nearest lantern and they all lit up to full brightness. Alex ran to the next lantern, hit it, and repeated the process.

It took about five lanterns and three wrong directions to get to the other side. By the time they exited the room, they were out of breath.

They steadied their breathing and took a deep breath. They were okay now.

The area they were in was dark, and they could barely make out what was in front of them. They could see the end of the room, and that the floor was water. There was nowhere to go but straight. They went ahead.

They soon hit the wall at the end of the room, and bumped into one of the talking flowers. “Behind you,” it said. 

Alex froze. Did that mean that they should go back the way they came or was someone behind them? They hoped it was the former option.

They slowly turned around, scared of what they might run into. It was James.

Alex wanted to cry.

James stared them down, giving them a cold look. “Seven. Seven gentile souls is what we need to break the barrier.”

Dear God, Alex didn’t want to be lectured before they died. They just wanted to go home. “Do you know how many we have right now?” Alex shook his head. They didn’t want to know, to be honest. “We have six. And you’re the first gentile to fall down here in a long time.”

The repeated use of the term ‘gentile’ to describe Alex made them think of how Jack said that that  _ wasn’t  _ the right word for non-Mormons. He should tell that to James. “You know what that means, don’t you?”

Alex nodded solemnly. They weren’t ready, but they guessed that this was their fate. Tears began forming in their eyes. “I’m glad you understand.”

James pulled his arm back, fully ready to impale Alex with his spear. Right as he was about to stab them, none other than Kyle jumped out from a bush of tall grass, smiling widely. Alex was grateful for his idolization of James. “Alex! Hey!”

James stumbled back, not expecting another kid to be around. Alex gave a small smile and waved. “You got a front row seat to James’s fight! That’s so cool!”

Kyle looked between James and Alex, his smile faulting. “Wait… Who’s he fighting?” Suddenly, James grabbed Kyle's arm, scowling. He wordlessly dragged him away, Kyle shouting in protest. “No, wait! I want to watch the fight!” After a short pause, he added, “You’re not gonna tell my parents I’m here, are you?!”

Alex wiped at his eyes once they were far enough away. That was a close one. They’ll have to thank Kyle for this later.

They hadn’t even noticed the room was lighter than before. They saw a bridge of glowing grass, leading to more water. They went that way.

There were more flowers that Alex avoided at all costs. They’ve only had bad experiences with those. They made it onto land and, turning a corner, was encountered with another bridge over an abyss. There were a lot of those here. 

“Hey! Alex!” They heard Kyle call from behind. He looked uncertain. “So, um… James told me that you’re not a Mormon.” Alex looked away and nodded. They didn’t like the thought of losing Kyle as a friend. “Oh… Well um… James also told me to stay away from you, but…”

_ Please don’t say you hate me _ , Alex thought to themselves. That’s the last thing they wanted to hear right now. “I don’t really want to be enemies with you.”

At least they weren’t going to fight each other over their differences. “I like being your friend! You’re really cool to be around! And um… Oh jeez.” Alex let him take his time. “I should… probably go home now, huh?” Alex shrugged.  _ Do whatever you want to _ .

Kyle took one last look at Alex and said, “Goodbye, Alex. I’ll never forget you.” He began to run back to his home, but he tripped and fell. Alex’s eyes went wide as Kyle hung onto the side of the bridge. “Oh jeez, oh gosh, Alex! Help me up! I can’t— I can’t get back up!” Alex rushed over to Kyle, pulling him back up onto the bridge. Kyle was scared half to death. Neither of them even noticed that James had appeared behind them. 

Alex pulled Kyle into a hug and teared up. That was incredibly scary, for both of them. “Thanks, dude. I really appreciate it.”

Alex gave him a couple pats on the back and let go. Kyle turned around to continue going back, only to come face-to-face with James. “Oh jeez, uh… If.. If you want to hurt my friend, you’ll have to go through me first!” Kyle puffed up his chest, now in a defensive pose. Alex couldn’t really see, but it looked like James grimaced. He put a hand to his head and began backing down. Before long, he was gone again.

Kyle held out a hand for Alex to take. They took it, and they were pulled up. “Geez, you really saved my skin, dude. Thanks again.” Alex gave a thumbs up. Kyle looked down, and then back up. “I should  _ really  _ be getting home now. My parents must be worried sick.” Alex shrugged. That was understandable. “So um… I guess I’ll see you later, dude!” Kyle beamed, before running off and waving goodbye. Alex waved back.

Alone again. Wonderful.

They went the opposite direction Kyle went and crossed yet another bridge. And then, they were faced with a large structure built entirely out of boulders. It looked like an archway towards somewhere. And who else would be up there other than James?

Well, Alex thought it was James. He didn’t have a helmet now. He was extremely pale, and had short black messy hair. Alex was pretty sure they could see a few scars on his face. Somehow, seeing his face was scarier than staring at his helmet. “Listen, Kid, I know dying isn’t really a thing you want to do at your age,” James started, trying to hide his frustration. “But you’re the key to letting us out of this place.”

He brandished his spear, getting ready to attack again. “And you can’t keep running away, being a coward!” Alex will admit, they  _ are  _ a coward. It felt weird being called out like that by an adult, though. “Hiding behind that kid, pretending to be friends with everyone so they won’t hurt you,” he continued on his rant, getting more and more angry as it progressed. “I’m tired of it! Accept your fate like a man!” 

Finally, James threw his spear towards Alex, and rushed down from the mountain to attack further. The spear only grazed Alex’s arm, tearing a hole through his sweater.  _ Fuck it _ , Alex thought.  _ I’m not going to die that easily. _

Right as James made it to the bottom, Alex sprinted through the passageway. James followed them closely behind, trying to either stab them or grab them  _ to _ stab them. James was fast, and Alex could only go so far on their own two feet.

As they continued running through, it was getting to be increasingly warmer. They wanted to slow down and stop, but their life was in danger at the moment.

They could see the exit to Waterfall in the distance, and the entrance to, presumably, Hotland. Alex quickened their pace.

James was still close behind, but it looked like he was slowing down, albeit just a little bit. That was good, Alex thought. Maybe they could actually get away.

They passed a large sign with scrolling red letters that read, ‘Welcome to Hotland!’ and passed the entrance.

Alex let out shortened breaths as they continued to run. They weren’t built for this much physical activity in one go. They barely got a look, but they could’ve sworn they saw another sentry station with snow on it’s roof as they passed. 

They were right. It was the same sentry station they’ve seen at least three times now. They could tell when they heard a loud thump on it’s wood with James shouting, “Price! Wake up and do your job!”

“Oh hey, boss man,” Alex could hear in the distance. Jack shouldn’t be allowed to work the same jobs at three different places in their opinion.

Finally, they couldn’t take the running anymore. Their lack of stamina and the humidity of Hotland finally got to them. Luckily, they stopped near a water cooler, which they hurried over to. They took a cup and poured water into it, hoping it would prevent them from suffering from heat stroke. Goddamn.

James had managed to catch up to them after a couple minutes. He hadn’t reached them, but he was close enough. Right as he made it to the same island Alex and the water cooler was on, he stumbled and lost his balance, flopping to the ground. Alex could see he was breathing heavily.

Well, one should expect that wearing all that metal armour would weigh one down when entering a city that’s probably the same temperature as Hell. 

Despite the fact that he’d just been trying to kill them moments before, Alex grabbed a cup of water for James and set it down next to him. Before James could do anything, Alex dashed off to get away from him.

That was a really close call. Their heart was pounding in their chest, whether that be from anxiety or their lack of physical fitness, they didn’t know. But at least they were safe now.

They stopped at an intersection, with two roads on either side of them and a large, white building that had ‘Lab’ written on it. They chose the path down to their right first.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> nobody:  
tyler: stenbrough rights!! through pop figures!!!  
ok but. next chapter out of context:  
physical by olivia newton john  
and also this is at 20k now??? im nearly halfway to the nanowrimo goal wowowow can i get a yeehaw? (yeehaw)


	6. Jazzercise

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> guess who took an undeserved week long break!  
me! i did that! thats why this chapter took so long  
since i made such a large mistake, im going to force myself to write 5k a day to make up for all the time i wasted  
why did i waste time? because dear god my hyperfixation is switching from tbom to stephen kings it  
however, i started this, and it would be terrible to let it go unfinished, considering im. almost halfway to the nanowrimo goal sjdjfjjfjfjfigi  
sorry i’ll shut up, here you go (:

On the path they took, Alex encountered a hooded figure atop a boat that was floating in the water. They approached the person.

“Hello there,” the person said. Alex couldn’t tell if they were a boy or a girl, but the voice was pretty feminine. “Care for a ride on my boat?”

Alex didn’t know where that boat went, and was sort of afraid to go with them. “Where do I go, you say?” the person— whom Alex decided to deem ‘The River Person’— asked. Alex hadn’t said anything, but he thought that. “Why, I go to Snowdin and Waterfall.”

Ah. Maybe those empty spaces they had seen earlier on were The River Person’s docks. That seemed to make sense. “Now, would you like to ride? It doesn’t cost anything.”

Alex debated whether they wanted to backtrack on their journey just to ride on the boat. Actually, it wasn’t a tough decision to make. Of course they wanted to ride on the boat.

“I can tell you want to go to Snowdin,” The River Person said as Alex hopped onto the boat. “Well, it’s not exactly  _ you _ who wants to go there,” They continued, a hint of a smile gracing their lips. “It’s more…  _ him  _ who wants to go to Snowdin again.”

Alex didn’t understand who  _ he  _ was, but didn’t feel like questioning it. This was already strange, they didn’t need things to get stranger.

Alex could see a few strands of ebony hair falling down onto The River Person’s face, although most of their face was hidden under their navy blue cloak. “So we’re off,” they said, the boat beginning to float down.

The boat moved fast with the river current, Alex almost losing balance with it a couple times. They basically sped past Waterfall and right to Snowdin.

When the boat slowed to a stop, Alex hopped off, almost falling back into the water due to dizziness. “Hope to travel with you again,” The River Person said, pretending to tip a hat that was not on their head. Alex waved goodbye and ran off.

As it turned out, they were right. The Snowdin dock for The River Person was the empty space they had encountered earlier. They didn’t pay much mind to it, though they were glad it wasn’t just a useless area. They raced down to the Price house, which they knew was just around the corner from it.

They knocked on the door twice before Kevin opened the door. “Oh, hello, Squirt! We missed you!”

Kevin’s appearance took Alex by surprise. Instead of the outfit he was donning earlier, he had on a blue t-shirt, black short-shorts, and his socks were pulled up halfway across his shins. It was odd. “Come in! You’re just in time for that television show I told you about!”

Alex completely forgot about the TV programme until now. They were too busy avoiding death to think about anything like that. They let out a soft gasp, quickly patting their pant pockets. Once they felt the right one, they grabbed the figure they found in the dump earlier and showed it to Kevin. Now it was Kevin’s turn to gasp. “Oh! Squirt, did you get this for me?”

Alex nodded. Kevin bent down to give them a hug, saying, “Thank you! That’s so nice of you!” Alex gave a thumbs up once Kevin let go.

Kevin quickly rushed to his room and back, very eager. Probably for the robot show.

Suddenly, the elevator music on the television stopped playing, and the screen was cut to black. Then, it faded in, and there was a man with two women behind him, and a pastel coloured backdrop behind them. “Hello, ladies and gentlemen!” The man in the middle greeted exuberantly. “Welcome back to Jazzercise!”

Ignoring the fact that the man just said the corniest thing Alex had ever heard, they noticed his physique. Tall, moderately attractive, and skinny. He was wearing a bright pink tank top and black leggings. His wrists had matching sweatbands, and his face was grey. His arms were grey too, with darker stripes circling around them. But…

No. There was no way that was an actual robot. Alex had seen drag queens before, although the ones up on the surface wore heavy makeup and long haired wigs. This one was more on the masculine side. Greyed out face with robotic detailing, bright pink eyes, and black hair… Alex could see through him. That was a drag queen.

They shook away their thought. They wanted to see how this would play out. “I hope you came prepared, because it’s time to get—“ A song began to play in the background. “—Physical!”

Said song in the background was Physical by Olivia Newton John. Alex recognized it. They listened to it over the speaker when doing warm-ups in gym class at school.

Kevin stood in front of the TV, smiling widely. He was really excited for this. “For this first exercise, we’re going to start simple. Stretch your arms up high and lean to the side. Ready? Let’s go!”

This was somewhat painful to watch, at least in Alex’s opinion. It was 202X and jazzercise was still a thing? A  _ popular  _ thing?! Alex didn’t even know what to say. They weren’t even in sync with the music. For about six takes, the man— McKinley, Alex figured— continuously said, “And stretch, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, and switch, two, three four.” It just… continued like that for awhile before McKinley stopped and said, “All warmed up?”

Kevin shouted, “Yeah!” excitedly towards the screen, despite the fact that McKinley couldn’t hear him.

Alex had already lost interest in McKinley, seeing how he was not a robot, and the old fashioned workouts he broadcasted. This was atrocious. 

The next set that they did was just shuffling side to side while swinging their arms back and forth. Upon closer inspection, one of the background dancers, a blonde girl wearing all pink, was absolutely off rhythm. She probably had no idea what was going on.

Meanwhile, while they were doing…  _ that _ , McKinley was offering words of encouragement to whoever the hell was watching this, adding comments about how well the viewer was doing and to keep going. Blech.

“C’mon, Squirt!” Kevin said after a minute or so. “You should join in! It’s fun!” 

Alex’ll pass. They shook their head quickly. “Alright. Well, just know you’re missing out!”

A few more exercises were performed until the song ended, and the three dancers on screen stood still with their hands on their hips. “Great job!” McKinley said, grinning. “We’re going to take a short break now! Remember to stay hydrated, and we’ll be back in a few!”

The screen faded to black, and a different drawing of McKinley was put on the screen. He was in a pose with a hand on his hip and the other reaching out to the words, ‘We’ll be right back!’ above him. 

This entire ordeal was a drug trip. That was the best Alex could describe it. A heroin-induced, full on drug trip. “Seriously, Squirt, this is a lot of fun!” Kevin called out, him already being in the kitchen, presumably to go get water. “You really should try it!”

No matter how many times Kevin tried to get Alex to participate in Jazzercise, they absolutely would not do it. The only time they will is if their corpse is hoisted into the air with strings and their lifeless body was forced into doing it.

.

“Veronica, hun, are you actually trying?” McKinley asked, glaring at the blonde background dancer. “You have all day to practice these sets and you  _ refuse  _ to do it.”

“I—I’m sorry, Mr. McKinley, I’m trying, I really am—“

“Then start flipping acting like it. If it weren’t for you being the favourite between you and Becky for whatever gosh-forsaken reason, I would’ve fired you.”

“I’m trying my best, Mr.—“

“No, you’re not. You are literally so off beat that it looks like you’re doing a whole different dance. My cat can dance better than you. Heck,  _ Chris  _ can dance better than you and all he does is sit on his butt eating those gross toaster pastries he finds in the trash dump.”

Veronica was left speechless, looking down in shame. “Now get out of my face,” McKinley shooed her away with a wave of his hand, going behind the cameras to the snack table. “That was a little harsh, Con,” A chubby blond boy muttered to McKinley as the latter grabbed a water bottle. “Am I wrong though, Chris? She’s so bad at dancing! I don’t even know why I hired her! This is a jazzercise show, not a dang circus!”

“I get that, but look at her,” Chris gestured to Veronica, solemnly standing in a corner with her own water bottle. “You made her feel terrible.”

McKinley sighed. “I’m just trying to get her to do as well as everyone else here.”

“You and Becky are the only other dancers.”

Chris took a bite out of the Poptart he was eating and continued with, “Anyway, my point is, you shouldn’t be going off on her because she’s not as good as you. She’s trying, and that’s what matters.”

McKinley rolled his eyes and set his water bottle down. “Whatever. It’s showtime, people, get in your places,” he shouted, going back to his spot in front of the camera.

.

After a few minutes of idling around, mostly on Alex’s part, the screen faded back to the three dancers. “Welcome back!” McKinley greeted with a smile. “Now it’s time to really get into it!”

Oh dear lord, that song from the crazy jazzercise lady video is playing. ‘Move Your Boogie Body’ is what it’s called if Alex remembered correctly.

Atrocious.

Alex couldn’t handle this anymore. They went off to the kitchen to see if any edible food had shown up in the fridge. “C’mon, Squirt, don’t be like that,” Kevin called out as he started dancing again. “You really should try it!”

Still no.

Alex opened the fridge again, and there was nothing new. Just beans and the take-home bag. Ugh.

They shut the fridge door and went back to the living room.

_ Oh God _ , Alex thought to themselves.  _ Moving your hips like that should be against Mormon rules. _ Alex sat on the couch and did their best to ignore the jazzercise going on in front of them.

The song ended with a promise to return shortly once again. Kevin stretched his back and looked over at Alex. “You look bored,” Kevin commented, furrowing his brows.

It was true. Alex was extremely bored. Alex nodded as a confirmation. “If you tried it, you wouldn’t be.”

When will Kevin get that Alex doesn’t want to jazzercise? Ugh.

Alex looked down to avoid Kevin’s gaze. He noticed Kevin’s left hand, which was ungloved and had some sort of marking on it. Alex sat up and pointed to it.

Kevin looked to where Alex was pointing and gasped. “Oh gee, I’m so sorry!” he apologized. “Jack keeps telling me to cover that up, I’m sorry.”

Alex didn’t understand why Kevin was apologizing to them. They just asked what it was. Jack isn’t here right now, he won’t know. Kevin looked from his hand to Alex. “Oh gosh… Oh you’re probably wondering about it, aren’t you?”

Alex nodded. They know they shouldn’t ask, Jack told him not to, but he isn’t here so might as well. Kevin held out his left hand, palm facing down, to reveal  _ 002  _ tattooed onto it. “I can’t really tell you much about it, I’m sorry.”

_ Please stop apologizing. _

“But uh, Jack said we were born with these on our hands. He has a one on his hand.” Kevin scowled and retraced his hand, hiding the marking with his other hand. “Every time I look at it, I get a bad feeling. Like… there’s something that happened that I’m forgetting.”

The TV programme came back on. Kevin ran back to stand in front of the television screen. “Don’t tell Jack i showed you it, okay? He’ll get real mad at me.”

“Welcome back to our third and final dance of the night!” McKinley spoke. “Aw, it’s almost six thirty already?” Kevin pouted, looking up at the clock on the wall. “Boo.”

Alex turned around on the couch, their back facing Kevin. They’re going to try their best to ignore the dancing now.

.

After desperately trying to ignore Kevin’s grunting while ‘Exercising’, and McKinley talking over I’m So Excited by The Pointer Sisters (A song that had way too much provocative subtext for Mormons in Alex’s opinion), the show finally ended. A screen that simply said, ‘Thanks for watching!’ was displayed, and Kevin turned off the TV. “You should probably get going now, Squirt,” Kevin said, scratching the back of his neck. “Jack wouldn’t like it if you saw me like this.”

_ In what? _ Alex thought internally.  _ The stupid Jazzercise outfit? _

Well, yes and no. Yes because Kevin’s hand is exposed, and no because he’s just in something a lot more casual and it shouldn’t matter.

Alex agreed, though. They still had Hotland and whatever’s afterwards to go through. Kevin patted them on the back and smiled. “You can always visit anytime, though! If I’m not with Jack, then I’m here!”

Alex gave a thumbs up and went for the door. “Bye again, Squirt!”

They left, shutting the door behind themselves. Not sure if The River Person was still at their dock in the empty space at the end of the pathway adjacent to the Price house, Alex went up.

Thankfully, they were still there. “You’re back,” they said, almost surprised. Alex nodded. “Let’s see here… You want to go to Hotland.”

Alex figured The River Person can read minds. There was no way this person was just guessing all their thoughts correctly. “Hop on board, I’ll take you.”

Alex stepped onto the boat, and it floated the opposite way they came. As it did, The River Person said, “You travel a lot. My son would like you.”

Oh. That’s nice?

They stopped in the space Alex initially found The River Person in and stepped off. “Good luck,” they said, tipping their imaginary hat again. “You’ll need it.”

That was vaguely threatening, but okay. Alex went towards that lab building they saw before leaving.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i should probably mention, my tumblr username changed from @kevinscoffeecup to @beepbeeptyler bc hahahah it  
also my friends will like that reference to veronica lmao because they know her and they hate her  
also also im. trying to add mystery to my boys but its probably not working because nobody cares about this god forsaken au lmao  
anyway im tired so like goodnight its 1am lol
> 
> edit: oh my god you know youre terrible at writing when you misgender your own oc  
if you catch me calling alex a he, please let me know because i write at night and am too tired to proof read lol  
surprise, none of this is proof read hsjcjcjcjcj  
ok i’ll go sleep now gn


	7. Hotland

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> honestly?? i dont know whats happening anymore  
the storys almost over i think but sjdjjfjj so is nanowrimo so im going to be pumping out chapters like *finger snap* that  
also, this chapter is a literal monster. i know that and im sorry. hotland is just really really long  
also, i know i skipped some stuff that happens in undertale, like all the encounters with mettaton + the fight with muffet, but like. mormons dont fight here. theyre nice. except james  
also! i know what youre gonna be thinking halfway through when you get to the part where [redacted], but theyre not dating yet. theyre just really good friends right now  
ok i’ll shut up here you go lol

The lab was blocking the entire space in front of them, so they couldn’t get around the building. The only way Alex thought they could get around was to go through it.

As they approached the door, it automatically opened to reveal the lab, very dark and looking like whoever worked here left a long while ago. They stepped inside.

Immediately, they could see a huge monitor propped up on the wall with _ Alex’s _face on it. When Alex walked closer, they saw that the camera followed their face.

The owner of this place was a real creep if they’ve been spying on a child. Yuck.

Suddenly, a door at the end of the hallway opened, and the lights flickered on. A small, chubby blond man came out, hastily putting his lab coat on. He turned his head to the right, widening his eyes at the sight of Alex. “Oh! You’re here already!”

_ What was that supposed to mean? _Alex thought, their face scrunching up in confusion. “Hello— Hi— Um—“ the man said, running (and almost tripping) to Alex. He stopped right in front of them, his hand extended for a shake. Alex nervously took it, unsure of what to think of him. “I’m Chris! But most people call me Thomas because, like, I’m a scientist and stuff and they feel the need to call me by my last name and— Well, I’m used to it, but— Hey! You can call me whatever you want!”

Alex decided to call him Thomas. He was probably the same person Jack’s friends with, and _ he _called him Thomas, so Alex decided to stick with that. “I’ve been watching your journey since you left The Ruins! You’ve been doing so great!”

Alex gave him a look that said, ‘That’s really creepy, dude.’

“Why are you looking at me like that?” Thomas’s face fell as he asked the question. “I just wanted to make sure you were okay while you went through The Underground.”

They just met each other like, a minute ago, why would he want them to be okay? That was odd to them. “Anyway,” Thomas dismissed the thought and wiped the crumbs off his face that he _ just _now noticed were there. “So like, I’m the royal scientist and everything, and I know my way around Hotland really well since y’know, I live here and everything—“ Alex doesn’t like when people ramble. “—So I can help you! Get to The King’s castle, I mean. Because I know how to get there and right after Hotland that’s where it is—“

“Chris, Jesus Christ, I can hear you from down the hall.” A ginger man walked through the door Thomas came from just a minute earlier. Alex didn’t recognize him at first, but upon close inspection, they could tell that was McKinley without his robot makeup on. “Oh am I rambling?! I’m so sorry, I do that a lot!”

“You sure do,” McKinley said, rolling his eyes. “Anyway, I’m going home,” he continued, going towards the direction Alex came from. “See you tomo— Oh gosh what the flip is that?!” McKinley jumped back at the sight of Alex. “Is that a flipping gremlin?!”

Alex scowled at the man. He was a lot ruder in person. “That’s the kid I told you about! The one from the surface.”

“Ah. Okay.” McKinley was still uneasy about them. Maybe he didn’t like children. “So uh, yeah. I’m going home, don’t follow me.”

“He isn’t going to follow you, he’s going to go home too.”

“Whatever you say. Just don’t feed that flipping thing after midnight.” McKinley walked past the two of them and went out the door. “Bye!” The door shut.

Thomas sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “So uh, that’s my friend Connor. I’ve known him for a long time and… Look, he’s not as rude as he seems, I promise.”

Liar. McKinley seems very rude. Alex didn’t like him very much. “Anyway, uh… Oh! I almost forgot!” Thomas ran up the stairs at the edge of the room to an elevated space. It was too high for Alex to see what was up there. He quickly ran back down from the stairs on the other side of the room, holding... something. “Since I know you can’t talk and everything, I made you something to help people understand you!”

The thing he was holding was a headband of sorts. It was blue to match Alex’s sweater. “I don’t know if you like headbands, but this should help! Oh, and once I put this on your head you’ll feel just a _ little _pinch, but it won’t hurt, I promise!”

The headband was put on their head, and immediately the word ‘Ow’ emitted from it in a voice that sounded extremely similar to the one in Alex’s head. “Oh! It works!”

“Oh.”

“Yeah so, it reads your thoughts and says them out loud! So now everyone can understand you!”

“That’s cool I guess.”

“Yeah!”

Alex hoped it wouldn’t read out _ all _their thoughts. It, however, did. The first question that popped into their head, “Is McKinley a drag queen?” was spoken. They already knew the answer, but it came up anyway.

Thomas’s face turned red, taken aback by the question. “No! I mean— No, he’s a robot, I mean— I mean, I built him, I should know—“

“The ginger man is McKinley.”

“No he’s— No he’s not I—“ Thomas continued to stutter out explanations to try and defend himself. It wasn’t working. “I have the— the blueprints upstairs I—“

“Liar liar, pants on fire.”

“This was a mistake,” Thomas groans, shaking his head. “Y’know what, we should just—“

“I want to see the blueprints.”

Thomas narrowed his eyes. “Why? So you can try and point out how McKinley isn’t a robot?”

Alex didn’t answer, instead going up the stairs to the other floor.

Running to a desk that looked like where Thomas would work, they went to sift through the various papers strewn about.

There was… a bunch of computer paper with an anime boy drawn all over them. They looked a lot like James. “Hey!” Thomas ran over, desperate to cover up his weird anime drawings. “Don’t look at those, that’s not—“

“That’s James.”

Thomas hastily shoved the drawings to the side, trying to move them away from Alex’s sight. “That’s gay.”

“Will you stop?!”

“Gay rights.”

“Okay,” Thomas muttered, picking Alex up. “You’re not staying in here, you’re going outside to continue your adventure.”

“Gay rights gay rights gay rights.”

Thomas tried navigating his way down the stairs and to the end of the lab. “Why is this place so small?”

“_ Please _stop thinking.”

They made it outside, the intense heat immediately slapping Alex in the face. How did people live here? “Rude,” Thomas muttered. The headband must’ve said that. “Anyway, Hotland is literally a labyrinth and you’re gonna need some help navigating it.”

“Okay.”

“Can I see your phone for a sec? Just because I don’t feel like going all through Hotland just to accompany you. It’s a long way.”

Alex wordlessly handed over the phone. Thomas grimaced immediately, staring down at the phone in his hand. “This thing is ancient! Where’s you get it?!”

“The nice lady in The Ruins gave me it.”

“Stay here, I have a spare you can borrow.”

Thomas quickly rushed inside again to go grab whatever spare he had. Meanwhile, Alex’s mind went back to the anime drawings.

Most of them were of James in warrior poses. The ones that weren’t solely James were of the two of them doing…

Gross. Thomas needs to control his libido.

Thomas came back out, holding a device that looked similar to an Android. “Here you go!” he said, handing the Android to Alex. “I’ve already transferred your contacts into it, so there shouldn’t be a problem. I’m on there too! So I can help you, I mean. Now, I’m sorry to be rude but you should get going. Please.”

“Okay,” the headband spoke for them as Thomas fidgeted with his hands, waiting for Alex to leave. “I like your hentai, by the way.”

“Bye!” Thomas shouted, immediately going back into the lab.

He should be taking that as a compliment, at least in Alex’s opinion. It was weird but well drawn. Shaking the thought from their head, they resumed their journey.

The humidity mixed with the temperature was what Alex would call Hell. It even looked like Hell there, with the orange coloured path and the sea of lava far below. Alex didn’t like it very much.

They didn’t like having to roll up their sleeves either, but if they wanted to get through this place, they’re gonna have to. They were already sweating, how much worse can it get?

They encountered two conveyor belts, moving extremely fast. They were hesitant to step onto it, but those things were the only way to go. Alex stepped on the one going forward, being sped across to the platform ahead. They almost lost their balance, and their heart was racing when they got off.

Unfortunately, there was another one directly after, this time built with a few turns. “Why has God abandoned me,” the headband said as Alex thought that. They begrudgingly went onto the conveyor belt, their mind (and the headband), repeating “Why, why, why,” as they went.

When they got off that one, they bent over to the pit and threw up. Who designed that thing?! That was _ terrible _.

After taking a short break to recover from their nausea, they went across a path made of pipe to another area. Why was the path made of pipe? They didn’t know, but they were thankful it wasn’t another one of those conveyor belts.

No. Oh no. That was not good. In front of them was a vent with an arrow pointing towards a gap. They didn’t like the idea of this. Shortly after stopping, they got a call from Thomas. They answered it reluctantly, and Thomas immediately asked, “Are you okay?”

“What am I supposed to do here?”

Thomas paused for a moment. “Well uh… You go on the vent and you’re flung to the other side.”

This truly was Hell, wasn’t it? “It’s not as bad as it seems, try it.”

Alex scowled and went to the vent, their feet dragging along the way. They stepped onto it and was thrown onto the next platform. “See? You’re fine.”

Alex wanted to scream. This is what they get for calling Thomas’s art ‘Hentai.’

“What are you waiting for? Try getting to the end!” And with that, the phone call ended. Great.

They managed to get to the end of the puzzle (If that’s what it was), and into the next room. There, they were met with a series of laserbeams blocking the path. They fiddled with their phone before managing to call Thomas. “Oh hey!” Thomas greeted, sounding like his mouth was full. “Oh, you’re at the lazers. Give me a sec, I’ll turn them off for you.”

In a few seconds, the lasers had turned off. “Sorry if I’m not paying attention, I’m having a snack right now.”

“Are you watching anime with your snack?”

Click.

That was rude. McKinley must have had an influence on him or something. Or, it could be most their thoughts being really sarcastic. Oh well. It was still rude to hang up on them like that.

Of course, karma comes to bite them with more of those vent things. Dear God. They got another phone call from Thomas. “Hey, dude.”

Alex rolled their eyes. Is this how this was going to go the entire time? Constant calling and hanging up? “So uh, that door to the north? It won’t open until you do the puzzles on the right and the left. Doesn’t matter which one you do first, just do them both. Now uh, I got a friend coming over soon, so I probably won’t be able to talk as much, so…”

Alex’s eyes narrowed. “Say hi to James for me.”

“You don’t know that it’s James!”

They stared down at their phone before Thomas groaned and hung up again. Yeah, it most definitely was James.

They decided to go to the right first.

There was a hallway that lead to a metal doorway, an upside down heart above the entrance. They went through.

They were greeted with a screen that had four white blocks— one by each corner of a square— and two black blocks in the centre. It looked to be some sort of shooter game. By the looks of it, they had two bullets to use before they failed the puzzle.

It seemed easy enough. They navigated the black blocks with a joystick that was elevated in front of them until one of the blocks were in between the white ones. They pressed the button next to the joystick and the box disappeared. They pressed it again, and an arrow opposite the one they controlled was split in half. A short victory sound played and the words ‘Congratulations!’ came up on the screen. They went back and headed to the left to do the other puzzle.

There was a blue laser blocking the way. Groaning and rolling their eyes, they went to dial Thomas again. About three rings in, he picked up. “Yello.”

“Who’re you talking to?” Alex heard another guy say in the background, along with what sounded like Sailor Moon. “It’s nobody, don’t worry. So, what’s up?”

“There’s a blue laser blocking the way.”

Suddenly, the laser turned off. “There you go.”

“Thanks. Also, hi James.”

“How do they know my name?”

Alex could hear the sigh escaping Thomas’s lips. “Don’t worry about it. Bye.”

Alex didn’t understand what Thomas saw in James. James tried to kill them earlier in the day, and they were about ninety-nine percent sure that Thomas had seen that. Mormons were weird.

In the room to the left, there was another shooter-esque puzzle, this time being a four-by-four as opposed to the three-by-three on the right side. It took them a couple tries to solve it, but they managed to do it without any help. ‘Congratulations!’ the screen read. Alex heard the closed door to the north open. They used the vents to get to the door, and then went through.

Much to their annoyance, there were a series of vents above the pit of lava that reached a different piece of ground. Alex put their head in their hands and groaned. They really hated these vents.

They jumped through each one, somehow making it to the other end without having the urge to vomit. Maybe they were getting used to them. Even if they were, they hated them.

They walked down the path for a few minutes before hearing a humming sound. They turned their head to the left, only to be greeted with a _ humongous _machine looming in the distance. It was very ominous. Alex wanted to know about it, so they called up Thomas.

“Listen, I know I said I was happy to help you and everything,” Thomas started right as he answered the phone. “But I’m really busy here.”

“Watching Sailor Moon is not being busy.”

Alex could tell Thomas didn’t like that response, even though he didn’t indicate it. “Anyway, where are you… Oh, The Core.”

“What is that?”

“It powers the entire underground. You’re gonna end up going there because of, like, the elevator in it that takes you straight to King Arnold’s castle and stuff. And then after that’s the barrier and… yeah. Anyway, I gotta go, bye.” Click.

Alex didn’t like The Core very much. It scared them.

At the end of the path they were met with a large cylinder labelled ‘R1’ in front of them. They decided to go in to see what it was.

As it turns out, it was an elevator. The only available floors to go to were ‘L1’ and ‘R2’. Left and right, Alex decided. They assumed they had gone from L1 to where they are now, so they selected R2.

Immediately after clicking the button, the elevator shot up, a whirr sounding from… somewhere. It didn’t take long for a ‘ding’ to sound and the elevator doors to open. They continued on.

They went to their right and were greeted by… Why.

It was Jack, in his sentry station yet again, looking at them with a smirk on his face. There is no escaping Jack. “Hey, Kiddo!” he greeted as Alex approached him. “Hi.”

“Oh cool, you’re wearing that mind reading headband I ma--” Jack cut himself off with a cough. “--That Thomas made for you. That’s killer.”

“You made the headband?”

Jack darted his eyes to the side before looking back at Alex. “So anyway, I’m selling hot dogs. Y’ want one?”

“Sure.”

“Coolio. It’s only thirty G.”

Alex grimaced. After all this time, they still had no money. The headband must have said this, because Jack muttered, “Alright, fine. I’ll give it for free since I know you so well.” He reached under his station to pull a hotdog out, and he handed it to Alex. “Pleasure doing business with you, Kiddo.”

Alex turned to walk away, but was stopped by Jack saying, “Hey real quick, can I ask you something?” They turned back and went up to Jack. “Y’ got anywhere to sleep? Kev was gonna ask you, but he kept forgetting so, I’m asking.”

Alex shook their head. Again, they had no money to buy literally anything, and they doubted there was a hotel that let Non-Mormons sleep free. “Oh. Well uh,” Jack scratched the back of his neck. Alex noticed it was with his right hand. “You’re always welcome to stay with us, I guess. I mean, there’s no guest room so you’ll have to sleep on the couch but…”  
“Your offer will be taken into consideration.”   
“Neat. I’ll let Kev know. You probably got places to be, so I’ll stop bothering you now. Have fun.” Jack waved at them and they walked away.

After a few minutes, they were met with a crossroad. One path going left and one going straight. They went left first.

All there was was an empty space, plus a lone apron sitting on the ground. Alex didn’t know whether they should pick up the apron or not, so they just left it be. They went back up and went straight.

There were two conveyor belts, albeit slower than the ones straight after The Lab. The one moving forward had three buttons to the side, which were presumably for that large laser barrier that was going to prevent Alex from moving forward. They got onto the conveyor belt, pressing all three buttons as they passed them.

The laser disappeared, and Alex moved on.

Unbelievable. They were graced with a labyrinth of vents that they’re going to have to traverse. Just looking at it made their nausea come back.

As if things couldn’t get worse with the vent hell, there were buttons that changed which directions the arrows moved you to. The headband summarized Alex’s feelings perfectly-- By giving off a loud scream.

It took them a long time to figure out how to get to the other side, considering how the very last arrow kept going the opposite direction they wanted to go. What sick monster decided to make this?

They went on, trying to ignore the fact that they wanted to throw up because of all the jumping. Those stupid vents just kinda had that effect on them.

Next, they saw another microwave with a mousehole nearby. Upon closer inspection, it was actually a safe. Going off what they knew from the other mouseholes they’d encountered on their journey, that safe was filled with cheese too. Knowing that one day the mouse might one day find a way to get the cheese from the safe, it filled Alex with determination. They went forward.

Farther up ahead, there were green beams that connected to platforms with pipes that emit smoke. What those were used for, Alex didn’t know. And to be fair, they didn’t care either.

They turned a corner and found a closer view of The Core. It was a lot bigger than what Alex was expecting. Then again, the first time they saw it they were pretty far away from it. They let out a breath they didn’t know they were holding and went forward.

They’ve reached elevator L2. They went inside to see if any other floors were available to go on now. As it turns out, L3 was unlocked. That made sense, since the buttons on the elevator were two-by-three. That means they were headed to the last floor. They pressed the button, and the elevator shot up.

The door opened and they went outside. Instead of the orange gravel(?) path they’d been on the entire time, the floor was a maroon colour made of solid material. Odd. They went forward.

There was a bake sale ahead of them. A girl, looking to be about fourteen, was behind a table with a checkerboard patterned cloth draped around it. Maybe the different flooring was for the bake sale. After all, the girl was wearing a dress that matched the colour of it. “Hello!” she said as Alex walked by. “Are you interested in purchasing any pastries? They’re homemade!”

“I’m sorry, but I don’t have any money.”

The girl’s face fell. “Oh, alright then. Maybe next time then. Have a nice day!” And with that, Alex went away.

No. Why. This can’t be happening. There’s _ more fucking vents. _

Alex hoped the headband didn’t say that. If any Mormons were around, they would try to beat them up for saying an expletive. Suddenly, they got a call from Thomas. Maybe he was done hanging out with his boyfriend and could pay attention to Alex. Not that they were against Thomas hanging out with James, they supported the LGBT+ community, but they kind of needed some help to get through this hellscape.

“So uh, hi, it’s me--”

“Sailor Moon is really mainstream. It shouldn’t be more important than a child trying to escape the underground, y’know. You’ve probably watched it five times over by now.”

“Okay, first of all, there are at least two hundred episodes of Sailor Moon, so don’t even get me started.” Alex really needed to shut his mouth. Well, not their _ mouth _ perse, more their brain from trying to start a fight with Thomas every time he picked up the phone.

“Second, I just wanted to tell you that there are two puzzles on the north and south sides of the room you’re in. You need to solve them to move forward. If you need help with them, just give me a call, okay? But you probably don’t need my help anyway, considering you’ve gotten through most of Hotland without my help.” Thomas hung up.

He’s probably going to watch more anime or something. Weeb.

Alex managed to find their way to the puzzle to the north first. It was another shooter puzzle, albeit a bit more complex than the ones previously. Instead of having two bullets, this time they only had one. They shuffled the black boxes around, trying to get a clear path from their shooter thing to the mirrored one at the end.

After a few minutes of moving the joystick around randomly, a path was made and they pressed the button. “Congratulations!” Alex left the room and went to try the puzzle on the opposite end. Somehow, the vents haven’t made them ill yet.

The conveyor belts, however, will surely make them ill. Why? Because there were two of them, and there were lasers in between the one going towards the puzzle. And they were both blue. Time to call Thomas again.

After two rings, he picked up. “Yello… Jesus, okay, blue lasers again. You know how to get through those, right?”

“Nope.”

Although Alex couldn’t see it, they could feel that Thomas rolled his eyes. “Blue means you don’t move. So just think of, like, a blue stop sign, because blue means stop.”

“Okay, but there’s a conveyor belt in front of me.”

“Ah. Okay, then I’ll just turn them off for you.” Click. Thomas hung up and the lasers were gone. They got off the conveyor and went to the room with the puzzle.

Unsurprisingly, there was only one bullet again. This time, there were white boxes aligned to make a row for the black boxes to fit in. They tried moving all the boxes into that slot, but one stuck out in the path that lead to the opposite shooter ship thing. They moved the boxes a little bit more to fit into some other spaces on the right side and the path was clear. With one press of the button, they solved the puzzle. They went back out to go to the vent room again.

Oddly enough, there was a cactus near the conveyor towards the room they need to go to. They would stop to smell the flowers, but the conveyor doesn’t stop.

They got back to the vents, navigated their way to the end, and went on. At the end, there was a door with two green symbols on it. When Alex approached it, it opened up. That was probably what was blocking them from continuing. They went through the opened door and went down the hall. They turned the corner and saw a man next to a cart. Alex guessed that the man was an ice cream vendor. Seeing as they couldn’t get anything from him, Alex passed him. And went up the stairs that were behind him.

Oh. There was a resort in front of them. More specifically, it’s called the ‘CMC Resort.’ Neat. It looked pretty nice, kind of like one of those hotels you’d see in vacation pamphlets.

And also, for some unknown reason, there was Jack. Again. Leaning against the wall by the door to the resort. At this point, Alex thinks he’s following them. “Come on, don’t be like that,” Jack said as Alex approached him. “I’m not following you, you just keep running into me.”

Alex didn’t believe that. “Anyway, before you go to The Core, y’ wanna go get dinner with me? There’s a restaurant inside the resort.”

“Are you paying?”  
“Probably.”

Alex agreed. “Cool. C’mere, I know a shortcut.” For some reason, they started walking towards the wall before popping into the restaurant inside the resort. The teleporting sort of disoriented them. “Here we are.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> listen i know yall are tired of jack but its not my fault sans shows up literally everywhere. youre going to deal with jack until i say so  
also, hi to the three people who are actually reading this! i appreciate you a lot! please kudos, i’d appreciate it v.v (that face is a reference)  
anyway uh. the next chapter is a filler i think but. oh well.  
alex is tired, im tired, happy thanksgiving


	8. Dinner

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oh??? whats this???? two chapters in one night???? how could this have happened????  
i told you i would be getting these done faster lmao  
also, the chapter has a dumb title but. i cant think of a better one right now sorry  
also. i can hear you groaning right now. tyler why do you have to put jack everywhere?! stop!!  
i will stop writing jack (and kevin) when im dead alright bye  
also? im taking mcpriceley out of the tags. i didnt even want it in this story in the first place but if i wrote it in then maybe people would suffer through this to get to it  
but no. im not gonna force myself to write it. mcpriceley shouldnt even be in this story in the first place. its not in undertale, and by that i mean that the undertale equivalent, papyton, isnt canon, so im not making mcpriceley canon in the mormontale universe  
this note is long so. bye lol

The restaurant was pretty empty for being in a resort. The colour scheme-- which Alex could only describe as murky purple-- was not suited for an eating establishment. The potted plants by the wall weren’t helping either. They went to an empty table and sat. “So,” Jack started, looking down at the table. “Your journey’s almost over, huh?”

Alex shrugged. They didn’t really know how much longer it would take for them to get out of the underground. “You must really wanna go home. I mean, I know the feeling, even if I shouldn’t,” he muttered out that last part. Alex almost didn’t hear it. “But uh, maybe you should just take what’s given to you.” 

Jack started tapping the table idly with his fingers. “I mean, down here y’ got food, drink, friends, all that stuff… Is what you have to do  _ really  _ worth it?” ...Was Jack trying to convince them to stay underground? What an asshole. “No need to be rude, Bud.” Jack scowled at them, but his expression quickly reverted back to neutral. “Just let me finish, alright? I mean, let’s be honest here. Once you get up there something’s gonna happen and we’ll all end up down here again.” 

What?

Jack looked down at the table again. “Y’know what? Forget about that. I’m rooting for you.” He paused to sigh, and he shoved his hand back into his pocket. “Y’ mind if I tell you a story?”

“Go ahead.”

“Coolio. So, I’m a sentry in Snowdin Forest, right? I sit out there and watch for people like you, y’know what I mean? It’s boring, I got nothing to do, but Kev’s always with me because he’s not a sentry yet so it’s not  _ that _ bad.”

Alex looked around while Jack monologued. Where’s the waiter? They want some water. “Anyway, on the rare occasion Kevin gets sick and stays home, I’m out all alone. Lucky for me, though, there’s this huge locked door deep in the woods. So, of course, what else am I gonna do other than practice knock-knock jokes on it?”

Jack doesn’t seem like the type of person to do knock-knock jokes. He looks to be more of a ‘Joe mama’ type of person. “What, you don’t believe me?”

Alex shook their head. “Alright then, I’ll bite. Knock knock.”

“Who’s there?”

“Yura.”

“...Yura who?”

“Yura Dopted.”

“No I’m not.”

“No, Kid, that’s the joke. Anyway, not my point, I practice jokes with the door. So one day, I’m knocking on the door, practicing jokes, like one does with a locked door. And suddenly, from the other side, I hear a woman say,  _ who’s there? _ So naturally, I go, dishes. And she goes,  _ dishes who?  _ And I finish off with, dishes a very bad joke. And then I just hear her dying of laughter like it’s the best joke she’s heard in a million years.”

Huh. The woman in question made Alex think of Naba. Given, they don’t know if Naba liked bad jokes like these, but she was the only person they saw in The Ruins. At least, Alex thinks the door Jack’s talking about is the one they exited The Ruins from. 

“So anyway, I keep going, and she keeps laughing. She’s the best audience I’ve ever had. I mean, Kevin likes my jokes  _ sometimes,  _ but not on the level this lady likes ‘em. Anyway, after maybe a dozen of them,  _ she  _ knocks on the door and goes,  _ knock knock!  _ And I go who’s there? And she goes  _ old lady.  _ Old lady who? And she’s like  _ Oh! I didn’t know you could yodel! _ ”

That one was a good one. Alex almost started snickering.  _ Almost.  _ “And now I’m the one laughing. Needless to say, she was  _ really  _ good. We kept telling each other jokes for hours. But eventually, I had to leave to go check on Kevin. It gets really bad when he’s sick because he’s homebound and just  _ needs  _ to do something. I mean, I always offer to stay home with him, but he’s always like,  _ Jack, I swear, you’re not going to take off work just because I’m not feeling well. This isn’t an excuse for you to sleep all day. Stop trying to get out of working you lazybones.  _ I mean, he’s not wrong, but he doesn’t need to call me out like that.”

To be fair, Alex didn’t get how Jack was lazy. Sure, he teleported everywhere and burned out quickly, but he’s always somewhere. “But uh, anyway, when I left, she told me to come back sometime. So, I did. And then I did again. And again. It’s a thing we do now. Telling bad jokes through the door and stuff. It’s killer.”

Alex was getting bored. But, they’ll let Jack continue. Jack paused for another moment, looking to the side. Then, he looked at Alex. “One day, though, I noticed she wasn’t laughing as much. Me, thinking that my jokes were getting stale, asked her what was wrong. Then she told me something strange.”

Oh, Alex was very certain something strange was said. All of these people were strange, why should this lady be an exception? “Wow. Okay. You’re a lot ruder when you’re thinking. Anyway, y’know what she told me? She said,  _ if a gentile ever comes through this door, could you please promise to watch over them, and protect them. Please. _ ”

Huh. So that’s why Jack was everywhere. That explains a lot. “Listen, I hate making promises. I’m barely able to keep them most of the time. And this lady? I don’t even know her name. But… Someone who sincerely likes sh-- bad jokes has an integrity just you can’t say no to.” Jack looked down, all emotion leaving his face. He looked really serious all of a sudden.

Alex didn’t like serious Jack.

“And, to top it all off, Kev has this belief that any bad person can change if they just tried. Given, he thinks that ‘trying’ would be through the power of religion, but... “ He sighed. Suddenly, everything froze except the two of them, just like it had in the cafe in Snowdin. Alex could’ve sworn they saw Jack’s left eye glow green for a second. “Y’know what would’ve happened if that lady didn’t make me promise all that stuff I promised? Or if Kev didn’t believe in people changing?”

Jack looked down, then straight at Alex. “You’d be dead where you stand.”

Alex’s jaw dropped. With the stuff he’s seen, he didn’t doubt that for a second. They knew Jack was a lot more powerful than he was letting on. For God’s sake, he can control time. Well, sort of. But that set a pit in their stomach.

Suddenly, everything around them started moving again. “Lighten up, Kiddo,” Jack said, a smile coming back onto his face. “I’m only joking.”

No. Alex won’t believe that for a second. That was way too serious to be a joke. “I mean, haven’t I done a great job protecting you? Look at yourself, you haven’t died a single time.”

What was that supposed to mean?

Jack sighed, his smile disappearing. However, it wasn’t like before. He looked more tired than serious now. “That’s pretty much it. I’m gonna go home now. Y’ wanna come?”

Alex didn’t know whether they should intrude on them. They were welcome at their house, but… Y’know what? It’s been a long day. They should probably sleep. They accepted the offer. “Cool. C’mon, let’s go.”

When Alex blinked, they were in Jack and Kevin’s living room again. And there was Kevin, sitting on the couch looking both bored and tired. His outfit had changed yet again, now wearing that hoodie Alex saw in his closet earlier and some pajama pants. “I’m back,” Jack said, making his way to the couch. “Where’ve you been?” Kevin asked, yawning straight after. “I’ve been waiting for you to get back from work for hours now.”

“I’ve just been following Squirt around, no big deal.”

“Why would you do that? That’s really creepy.”

Exactly. Someone finally gets it. Being followed around isn’t fun. Kevin shot up and stared right at Alex. “Squirt can speak?!”

“Kinda.”

“That’s so cool! ...Can I go to bed now?”

“You could’ve gone to bed while I was out, y’know.”

“Last time I did that, you threw yourself onto me while I was sleeping.”

“I mean, don’t you do that every night anyway?”

“Y’know what, I don’t feel like fighting this. I’m going to bed. Bye, Squirt. G’night, Jack,” Kevin muttered, going up the stairs and into his bedroom. “‘Night, Kiddo… So anyway, like I said, you can stay on the couch if you want. I would say sleep in Kevin’s room, but he doesn’t like it when other people are in his room when he sleeps. I mean, yeah, he wakes up in the middle of the night to go in my room, but still.”

Alex went to lay down on the couch. They didn’t really want to sleep in Kevin’s bed anyway. “Cool, you’re already getting comfortable. I’m gonna go to bed now too, I think. See ya.” And with that, Jack was gone too.

Alex yawned and stretched their back. They really needed some sleep after today.

.

In the middle of the night, Alex woke up to the sound of Kevin’s bedroom door opening. They rubbed their eyes so they could see what was going on. Unsurprisingly, just as Jack said he would, Kevin quietly went into Jack’s room. He didn’t even look awake, he looked like he was still sleeping.

Maybe that was a thing Kevin did out of habit. Alex didn’t know, and Alex wasn’t going to ask, either.

However, if they remembered in the morning, they  _ were  _ going to ask about why Jack’s room was glowing green when Kevin opened the door. There were too many mysteries surrounding those two.

Alex decided to go back to sleep. They really needed it.

.

Alex woke up again, this time on their own terms, in the morning. The two brothers were already up, doing their own things. It’s surprising how they didn’t wake them up.

Alex got up off the couch and into the kitchen where they were. “Oh hey, Squirt,” Jack immediately greeted upon Alex’s arrival. “Sleep well?” They shook their head. “Good.”

“Hi, Squirt!”   
“Hi, Kevin.”

Alex went to see if there was any food in the fridge yet. Of course, there was nothing edible for them there. “Are you hungry? I can make something for you if you want,” Kevin said, stopping whatever he was doing on the counter to look at Alex. “I’m okay, thank you,” the headband spoke for them. “Alright. Well, if you need anything, just say so.”

Alex went away to go lay on the couch again. They didn’t have anything better to do, other than maybe go back to Hotland and complete their journey. But Hotland was big and it’s far away, and they  _ really _ didn’t feel like walking all the way to where they were again. 

They could hear talking in the kitchen, but didn’t want to interrupt to see what it was. They rolled onto their side, facing the living room.

Suddenly, Kevin, eating a piece of toast, came out of the kitchen to ask. “Squirt, I have my piano lesson soon, wanna come?” That beats going back to Hotland. “Sure.”

“Yay! Jack he said sure!”

“Coolio,” Alex heard Jack reply from the kitchen. “I’ll take you both there.” Soon after that was said, Jack was in the living room too, looking very tired. “It’s gonna start in a couple minutes, right?” Kevin looked at the clock on the wall. “Shoot! Yeah, it does!”

“C’mere, I’ll get you over there right now. You too, Squirt, c’mon.” Alex bound towards them, not knowing why they were so excited for piano lessons. 

It took a moment for Alex to comprehend where they’d went, but the three of them were in front of a house. Given from the surroundings, they deciphered that they were in Waterfall. “So, I’ll pick you up in thirty?”

“Yup!”

“Alright then. Bye.”

Jack disappeared. He teleported a lot, Alex noticed. Kevin went to knock on the door, a smile on his face. A moment later, none other than James opened the door. Fuck.

“Hi, James!”

“Howdy,” James muttered. From the looks of it, he just woke up too. “So, I hope you don’t mind, but I brought my friend over too! That’s fine, right?” Kevin stepped aside to reveal Alex, who was shaken up from being face-to-face with James again. James, equally as surprised as Alex was, had his eyes widened, although he still looked somewhat angry. Was angry the right way to describe him? Alex didn’t know. “Uh… Yeah, sure.”

“Thank you!” Kevin exclaimed, going inside the house, not before shoving James aside to get in. James stood in the doorway for a moment, glaring daggers at Alex. It made them really uncomfortable. “Get in before I change my mind,” James said, moving to let Alex inside.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello and welcome to tyler didnt forget to put the whole undyne cooking lesson thing into mormontale, he planned to put it in much later than regular people would experience it in undertale  
yes, this chapter is bad. i know that. but im trying to get to 30k before i sleep so i can get to 35k tomorrow, 40 the next, etc  
now i should stop writing these notes and get back to work so i can get to 30k lol. see yall tomorrow probably


	9. Vents and Pianos

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi! real quick, we have trigger warnings so! proceed with caution if youre sensitive to:  
-domestic abuse  
-child abuse (idk if thats actually here but im putting it just to make sure)  
-murder  
cool thanks xoxo  
honestly? i have no idea what im doing anymore. but to be fair, nobody will probably read this far /: if you did then, congrats! youre in the top 1%  
alright, heres some james for you

Alex didn’t know how piano lessons would work with two people trying to learn at the same time. Actually, Alex didn’t want to know. They wanted to leave. “So, um, I was thinking that maybe Squirt can try playing piano too? I mean, I don’t know if he can already play piano or anything, he didn’t speak until last night, but still.”

“This is _ your _ lesson though,” James replied, running a hand through his hair. “And I don’t even like this kid in the first place.”

“Rude ass.”

Fuck. At this point, the headband had a mind of its own, and Alex wanted to take it off. But, if they did, nobody would be able to understand them, so they kept it on. “Language, Squirt!” Kevin chastised, not happy with the swearing. James glared at them again, and Alex regretted even thinking of calling him rude. “You wanna say that again, _ Squirt _?” James spat, ready to fight Alex. “No, no, no, I’m sorry! Please don’t hurt me!”

“Okay, anyway, let’s start!” Kevin intervened, somewhat worried that a fight would break out. Thankfully, James’s attention was taken off of Alex’s comment, and he agreed. “You’re right. We should start now.”

“Yeah!”

James’s house was pretty small-- being about apartment sized, with two doors for the bathroom and bedroom respectively. That being the way it is, there was a piano at the side of the room. Kevin was already at it, ready to be told what to do. Then, his face lit up, seemingly from an idea. He shouted, “Actually, I have to go to the bathroom! You two have fun bonding!” Then, he ran into the bathroom, slamming the door shut.

Now it was just James and Alex. Alone. That was totally not bad or anything. Alex saw James clench his fists before taking a deep breath and letting go. He turned around to look at them, jaw clenched and anger bubbling inside of him. “Why are you here?” he said through gritted teeth. Alex was very frightened. “Are you here to rub your victory in my face? Humiliate me even further?”

Alex didn’t understand what they did to make him upset, but the headband spoke for them. “Kevin asked if I wanted to come for piano lessons and I said yes.”

“Of course.” James’s eyes narrowed. “He asked you to come because you brainwashed him into becoming your friend. That’s it, isn’t it? Well I won’t fall for it!”

“Or,” Kevin started, peeking his head out of the bathroom. “You’re just too much of a coward to be his friend.”

“Why are you provoking him?!”

“Is that so?”

James was way too scary for Alex. They didn’t really know if they wanted to be friends with him. Right now, they were really leaning towards no. Kevin went back inside the bathroom. “Hmph. He thinks I can’t be friends with you? What a joke.”

No, Alex thinks he’s right. They weren’t really up for this. “I can make friends with a gentile without even trying.”

Oh, no. That seemed highly unlikely. James would try to kill a Non-Mormon in a second. Alex was proof of that. “Listen up, Kid. We aren’t going to be just friends.” Alex didn’t like where that was headed. “We’re going to be _ best _friends. I’ll make you like me so much, you won’t be able to think of anyone else.”

Why did Kevin have to set them up like this? “It’s the perfect revenge.” Somehow, Alex could see the hint of a smirk on James’s face. Intimidating. “Why don’t you have a seat?”

Well then. There was nothing else to do so, might as well. Alex sat down on the piano bench, waiting for instructions like Kevin did before. From the corner of their eye, they could see Kevin peeking his head out of the bathroom door to watch.

James walked over to the piano, scaring Alex even further. They wanted to run away, but now Kevin was watching them, so… “Have you ever played piano before?”

Alex shook their head. “I thought so. Move, I’m sitting down.” Alex scooched over, and James sat down next to them on the bench. “It’s easy. Just lay your fingers down on some keys,” he demonstrated as he spoke, “And smash the keys down.”

Suddenly, a cacophony of noise sounded through the room. It was painful on Alex’s ears. On instinct, they covered their ears and closed their eyes in distress. “I want to key smash the piano too!” Kevin shouted, running out of the bathroom and towards the piano. _ He _ pressed his palms into at _ least _ten keys, making a horrific sound. Both the boys seemed to forget there was a child between them. One who was sensitive to loud noises such as these.

“Very good, Kevin. Now you do th-- What’s wrong with him?” James asked, taken aback by the small, scared child. Kevin didn’t know what to do either, so he hastily pulled out his phone to call Jack. They kept thinking over and over, _ loud noise is bad, loud noise is bad, _but the headband wasn’t saying anything for them. “Jack, Squirt is shaking and I don’t know what to do, and I think we traumatized him!”

Alex took a few deep breaths to calm down. Once their heart stopped pounding and their ears didn’t hurt, they removed their hands from their ears. “Oh. Nevermind, he’s okay now.”

Alex couldn’t hear the other end of the phone call, but felt like they didn’t need to since Kevin put his phone away right after he said that. “Err… Maybe we shouldn’t do piano for now.” Absolutely. No more piano. “Then what’ll you do?”

James shrugged. “I don’t know. What do _ friends _do?”

Kevin put a hand in front of his mouth and snickered. “Shouldn’t you know? You have friends, don’t you?”

“Yes but-- I only have one. That isn’t you, I mean.”

What a shocker. It’s a miracle James has any friends at all, considering how he’ll maul anyone within a ten foot radius. The headband decided to say that out loud, huh? Wow. “Excuse me?”

“Nothing.”

James avoided everyone’s gazes, and stood up from the piano bench. “You know, we can just do this another time, Kevin. Lesson’s over. You can go home now.” Kevin’s face fell. “But we just got here…” James turned away and crossed his arms. “It’s okay. You’re free to go.”

Kevin sighed and started walking towards the door. “If that’s what you really want, then okay. Come on, Squirt, we’re gonna go.” Kevin pulled out his cell phone again, presumably call Jack to pick them up.

Alex felt bad for what they thought. Given, they can’t _ really _control what their mind thinks up like they can control what comes out of their mouth. “I’m sorry, James. I didn’t mean what I said.”

James didn’t look back at Alex, instead choosing to stare at the ground. “No, I know you meant it. And you’re not even wrong.” Alex averted their eyes. Now they felt _ really _bad. “No, I’m sure I’m wrong. You’re probably a great friend.” Well, Thomas says he is, anyway.

And Thomas wasn’t a very reliable source.

Outside, Although muffled, Alex could hear Jack say, “What’s he doing? I thought you two were leaving.” Alex turned around to motion for them to go on without them. And then they disappeared.

Alex went over to face James. “Are you okay?” James simply shook his head and straightened his back, his face void of emotion. “Everything’s fine. You can leave now.”

“Bottling up your feelings are bad, James.”

“Nobody said I was bottling anything up. Now please…” James couldn’t even finish his sentence before his facade broke, his face scrunching up. Was it anger? Sadness? Alex couldn’t tell. “It’s okay.”

James pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. “You didn’t come here for my life story, Kid, I’m not going to bore you with it.” He went over to the table in the opposite corner of the room and propped his head in his hand.

“It’s okay if you do. If there’s something you need to let out, then you should let it out.”

“Jeez, for a Kid, you’re pretty wise,” James muttered under his breath, a hint of sarcasm in his words. “If you really want me to share, then I will.” Alex went over to sit with James at the table. “But if you tell anyone any of this, then I’m going to kill you. Got that?”

Alex quickly nodded their head. “And don’t start with your stupid comments either.” Another nod, followed by Alex trying to pull his headband off. They got it off, almost falling off their chair. James took a deep breath, ignoring the headband on the table and mentally preparing himself to tell his story. “Alright then. Here you go.”

They noticed this was a similar scenario to last night when they ‘had dinner’ with Jack. Although Jack didn’t tell them _ his _ life story, this caused major deja vu. “It started when I was around five years old. Before then, my parents were always happy. But… Something changed in my father specifically. He kept finding these… _ bottles _that were from the surface and… they made him a lot angrier.”

Ah. He has daddy issues. That says a lot. “He started hitting my mom. At first it was only when he was _ really _angry. Then it happened more often. Soon, it was a daily occurrence, and all I could do was sit and watch. I mean, what was I going to do? Try to hit him? He could’ve ripped me in half like a piece of paper.”

James took a moment to pause. Maybe to collect his thoughts. “...Eventually, I tried to get stronger. And I… Well, let’s just say, I somehow managed to convince Arnold to fight me.”

How does anyone get the idea to fight the king of their people? That was _ very _ irrational. “He didn’t fight back, but he kept dodging my attacks. Not one of my attacks landed. It was humiliating.”

Yeah. Fighting The King will do that. Especially if you’re a child… Oh. Alex has to fight The King soon. Right. “Eventually, I just kind of stopped trying. Ended up sobbing because I thought I would never be good enough to fight my dad. He asked me what was wrong and, well… I told him everything about what was happening in my house. I guess he took pity on me, cause he asked if I wanted to be trained by him. Of course, I said yes.”

Not to undermine the story or anything, but it was really long. They won’t stop James, though, he needs to talk out his trauma. “So, I got stronger. And, when I was a teenager, there was a particularly bad fight breaking out between my parents and I… I snapped. I ended up beating him up. So bad in fact, that he… died. I ended up killing my own father.”

_ Oh. _“And the worst part is I didn’t even feel anything. There was nothing in me. Just an empty void of nothing. And there was my mother, crying her eyes out. A little while afterwards, I finally realized what I did. And I felt terrible about it. Still do. I’ll never forget my mother’s face the day I killed him. It’s burned into my mind.”

Pause. “And then, few years later, my mom disappears. I haven’t heard from her since she left. I think she abandoned me because of what I did. I’ll probably never know, though… But that’s pretty much it. Thanks for letting me, uh… vent? I don’t know what that’s called.”

Alex gave a thumbs up as a you’re welcome. They grabbed their headband and went to put it back on. Finding the slots that were created when Thomas put it on them, they got ready to leave. “Hey, uh… Can you maybe do me a favour?” James, still sitting at the table, pulled out an envelope from his pocket. “You’re headed to Hotland, right? Can you, uh… get this to my friend? He lives right at the entrance to Hotland, y’know--”

“Is it Thomas?”

James’s face reddened, but his expression didn’t change. “Maybe it is. So, can you get this to him?”

“I’ll do my best.”

James got up from the table and handed the envelope to Alex. “Thanks, Kid. And if you read it, I _ will _ kill you.”

“Noted.”

“Alright, now get out of here.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i swear to god i didnt mean for it to get this dark shfjfjfjfj  
but here we are  
next chapter? oh boy. the alphys date. but with thomas. and yall can get your churchtarts that youve been waiting for (:  
alright i have about. 3.5k more to write before i go to bed lol bye


	10. Trash Dates

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> surprise! another double chapter day  
with some churchtarts for your soul *0*  
idk why i used that emoticon but i just felt like using it  
anyway i had fun writing this but its 3am and i have another 1k to go so,,, thats awkward  
anyway, enjoy lol

Leaving James’s house, Alex got the urge to open up the letter, just to see what it said. But, they didn’t want James to murder them like they  _ know  _ he would. Intimidating.

They went to the fastest way to get to The Lab, also known as Thomas’s place. The River Person. They were there, on their dock near James’s house. “Hello again,” they greeted as Alex approached them. “Hi.”

“Ah, they speak,” The River Person said, teasingly. “I need to go to Hotland, please,” the headband said. “Alright then. Hop on.”

Alex got onto the boat, and they were off. 

Now that they thought about it, there were some similarities between The River Person and James. Black hair, no emotion, tall. Maybe his mom was The River Person. That seemed highly unlikely.

“Anything is possible if you think about it hard enough,” they said suddenly, probably because the headband read off Alex’s thoughts. Hm.

Without even realizing it, Alex was in Hotland. They stepped off the boat and waved goodbye to The River Person. In response, they tipped their imaginary hat. “Pleasure doing business with you.”

Alex went up the path to The Lab. The door didn’t automatically open like it did when they showed up the first time. Odd. Thomas must’ve locked the door.

Figuring that he wasn’t home, Alex slid the letter under the door and knocked on it. They waited for a response from inside. After waiting for a few seconds, they turned to resume their journey, only to be stopped by Thomas’s panicked voice. He wasn’t calling for them to wait, more like he was muttering to himself. “Oh gosh, is that-- Is that another letter?”

Why was he so scared? That didn’t make sense. “I should-- I should slide it back out. I don’t want to read it… No, I can’t keep doing this. I’m going to read this one.”

There was a pause. “Oh.” Suddenly, the door opened to reveal a flustered Thomas, holding the letter tightly in his hand. “Hey, if this is a joke, it’s not--” Then he noticed it was Alex in front of him. “--Oh my gosh. Did you write this letter?!”

Alex didn’t know how to respond. This has never happened to them before. “It wasn’t signed, so I don’t know who wrote it… Um… I mean I’m flattered and that’s-- pretty adorable, but.”

Now was the time for their brain to say that they didn’t write the letter. But, they were frozen in embarrassment. “I had no idea you wrote that way, and… It’s surprising, too. After all the stuff I--” A cough. “Anyway, I don’t know if I deserve this…? Um…” Thomas suddenly took an interest in looking at the sky. “And it’s written so passionately too-- Oh gosh.” He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “Y’know what? Alright. I’ll do it. I have nothing better to do anyway. So uh… Sure. We can go on a date.”

What?!

“Give me a second to change, I’ll be right back.” Thomas went inside to get dressed for the date Alex didn’t plan on having with him. What the hell did that letter say?

A minute later, Thomas was back, but with a collared shirt and some slacks. His outfit is what Alex imagined a missionary looked like, sans the name tag clipped on the shirt. “So uh… I’ve never really been on a date before so… I don’t know how this works.”   
“That’s okay. Neither have I.” Why did they headband say that? This should not be escalating further. Maybe they weren’t in full control of the headband. Who knows anymore.

They stood around idly for a couple moments before things got awkward. “So, um…” Thomas started, not knowing what else to do. “Do you like… anime?”

“Yeah.”

“Oh! Uh… me too.”

Pause. Is this what dating was like? “Hey let’s… Go somewhere…? Um… Wait, where’s a good place to go on a date...” This should not be as hard as it is. “Oh! I know! We could go to the garbage dump!”

Not the ideal place for a date, but okay. They agreed.

.

“Here we are!” Thomas declared once they encountered giant piles of trash. Alex remembered this is where they fell when James broke the bridge they were standing on the first time they were getting chased. “Me and James come here all the time! We find a bunch of neat stuff here!”

Okay. We get it. You want to suck James’s di-- “Why are you so dirty minded? I don’t want to do that!” Oops. “Anyway, I think-- Oh no.”

There were footsteps in the distance. That seemed to set off alarms in Thomas’s head for whatever reason. Now he was panicking again. “Oh gosh, oh geez, that’s James over there. I-- Oh gosh, I can’t let him see me on a date with you!”

“Why? Because you’re already dating?”

“Oh shut up-- Oh gosh, here he comes, bye!” Thomas ran to hide behind a trash can. Right where he belongs, because he’s trash.

If the headband said that, it better say that was a joke too. Because it totally was a joke. Suddenly, James came over to them. He looked different than when Alex saw him in his house. It was almost like  _ he  _ was ready for a date. “Hey, Kid.”

“Hi again.”

“So, I realized if you delivered that thing, it  _ might  _ be a bad idea.” Yeah, it was a bad idea. They were dragged into a date because of it. “So I’ve decided that I’m gonna do it. So hand it over.”

“I don’t have it.”

“Fuck! I mean-- Flip! Have you at least seen him?”

“Yup.”

James averted his eyes from Alex. “Great. So he’s somewhere around here, then. Thanks, Kid.” And with that, James ran off. Thomas also got out from behind the trash can. “...Huh. So, I guess it’s obvious now, isn’t it? I… really like him.”

“It was obvious when you drew your hentai.”

“Shut up! This is the part where I monologue!”

“I’m glad you’re aware that you’re about to lecture me.”

“Stop! Anyway… I’m sorry I dragged you out here for this weird…  _ not  _ date. I just thought it would be… fun I guess. Actually, that sounds really bad when I put it like that.” Thomas sighed and put his hands in his pockets, minus the thumbs, which were sticking out. “Sorry. Um…”

“James is the person you’d rather go on a date with, right?”

Thomas shrugged. “Yeah… But he’s way out of my league anyway.” Oh God, Alex could feel a mushy rant come on. “I mean, he’s so confident, and strong, and funny--” Alex wouldn’t agree with that last one. “--And then there’s me. A nobody.” Oh. The rant wasn’t as long as Alex had anticipated it being. “Aren’t you the royal scientist, though?”

“Well, yeah, but…” Thomas hunched into himself. “I’m not the one who does all the work… And-- me and my assistant we’ve-- we’ve hurt so many people. And we’ve told so many lies. Especially me. Oh gosh… Because of it, James thinks I’m a lot cooler than I actually am. If he gets closer to me, he’ll… find out the truth about me… Oh gosh, what should I do?”

Alex absolutely was not the right person to ask about this sort of stuff. But, they might as well help a friend in need. “Tell him the truth. It’ll be better for you in the end.”   
Thomas hesitantly looked up. “But if i tell him the truth, then… he’ll hate me. Isn’t it better to live a lie where both people are happy? Or a truth where neither of us are…” He paused again. “A lot of people say to ‘be yourself’ but… I don’t really like myself very much. I’d rather be whatever makes people like me.”

“That’s not healthy.”

“But then everyone would be happy, right?” A moment of silence. Alex could tell he was debating what to do. “No… No you’re right…” He looked down again. “Every day I’m scared of what’ll happen when people learn the truth on their own. They’ll all get hurt, and I’ll be the one to take the blame for it.”

That last bit didn’t make sense to Alex, but they let him continue. “But how can I tell  _ James  _ the truth?! I don’t have the confidence to do that! I’d mess it up!”

“We can practice.” That was a dumb suggestion, but they thought it up anyway. “Practice? Like… How?”

“We can roleplay it.”

Thomas shot up nervously. “R--Roleplay?! Oh geez, I haven’t roleplayed in a long time. Um-- Okay, we can do that I guess. Oh gosh, this sounds creepy but, which one of us will be James?”

Alex simply pointed to themselves, with an ‘Are you serious?’ type of look on their face. Thomas’s face reddened and he muttered, “Right, yeah, of course. Yeah. Okay.” Thomas cleared his throat, getting ready to start. “Okay. H--Hi, James. How are you today?”

“You’re cute.”

Thomas looked like he wanted to scream. “He wouldn’t say that,” he muttered under his breath. “Th--Thanks. Um… you’re cute too?”

This was funny in Alex’s opinion. They gave a thumbs up to encourage Thomas to keep going. “Um, so anyway, I… I wanted to talk to you about something.”

“And then he kisses you.”

“What?! No! He would never!” Alex crossed their arms. They were roleplaying and James’ll be as out of character as Alex wants him to be. Thomas looked around to see if anyone was watching them do this. Once the coast was clear, he covered his face with his hands and said, “I… kiss him back. Softly-- And I look him in the eyes gently, and--”

“And then you start hollering! ‘James!’ you say with a burst of passion! ‘I’m in love with you! Kiss me again, James!’ And then he does!”

“Oh. My gosh.”

“And now you’re having sex on the floor!”

“What did you just say?”

Oh. It’s James. He’s… still here. That’s awkward. “Oh gosh, uh-- James-- we were just--”

“Actually, wait,” James cut him off, while looking him up and down. “You have a, uh… cute outfit on. What’s… the occasion?”

See? Alex  _ knew  _ James would say that… Okay, no they didn’t. They just said it for laughs. But at least they were right. “Wait a second,” James said before Thomas could even answer. “Are you two on a date?”

“Uh… Yeah-- I mean uh, no! I mean, we were, but…” James was glaring daggers at Alex while Thomas tried to come up with a definitive answer. “I mean, we were only romantically roleplaying as you!”

“What?!”

“It got really hot and steamy,” the headband contributed to the conversation for Alex. “We were having sex on the floor.”

“We were  _ not _ !” Thomas practically screeched, trying to make this situation better. As if that could happen. “I mean! I mean…” Thomas sighed, unable to look at anybody. “James, I… I’ve been lying to you.”

“What?! About what?!”

Oh fuck. He’s angry. That’s not good. “About… well… everything…” Thomas looked shameful. And he should be ashamed, lying is bad. “I told you that hazelnuts specifically were scientifically important, but I just use them to make ice cream-- And those gentile history books I keep reading are just dorky comic books-- And the history movies are just-- uh-- anime and-- they aren’t real-- And that time I told you I was busy with work on the phone was just me eating yogurt in my pajamas and--”

“Chris.”

“I’m sorry! I just wanted to impress you! And-- And I just wanted you to think I was smart and cool and that I wasn’t… some nerdy loser.” Thomas looked like he was about to cry. James sighed and went up to Thomas. “Chris,” he repeated, lifting Thomas’s chin so the smaller boy could look up at him. At least he wasn’t angry.

Or disappointed.

“James, I-- I really like you, okay? I like you a lot.”

James wordlessly crouched down to Thomas’s level and wrapped his arms around him. Thomas hugged back. “I’m-- I’m sorry…”

“Chris, it’s okay.” James leaned in closer to Thomas’s ear and whispered something that Alex couldn’t hear. They could guess what was said from the look on Thomas’s face, though. “Really?” A nod. “Listen, all that stuff you just told me? I don’t really care about it. That’s just nerdy crap to me.” 

James pulled back from the hug just a little bit to look Thomas in the face. “What I like about you is that you’re passionate. Analytical. It doesn’t matter what it is, you care about it. So you don’t have to lie to me. I don’t want you to have to lie about anything to anyone anymore. In fact, I want to help you be happy with who you are.”

“Really...?”

“Hundred percent.”

Now felt like the time for Alex to leave. They began backing away, but the other two didn’t even notice. They were too invested in themselves.

Well, hopefully one of them will thank them later. They were a good wingperson. Now it was time to resume their adventure.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oops. oh no. i just realized the true lab is the next chapter  
maybe there youll get some answers for some questions you probably dont have 0:?!?! yeehaw! im going way out of order! with the game! alex hasnt even gone through the core yet oh my GOD what am i doing hahjfcj  
anyway goodnight lol


	11. The True Lab, Part One

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey! before we start, we have a trigger warning!  
if you’re sensitive to child abuse, you can read this chapter, but you shouldn’t read the parts with the tapes. and theres mild mild MILD homophobia at the beginning. it’s not explicit, but it’s there  
don’t worry, they aren’t homophobic, it’s just,,, whdjfjfjfjfj  
i know this chapter is huge, but thats why i split it up in two parts. one, to create suspense with the cliffhanger, and two, if i didn’t cut it, it would be like 10k words  
and nobody wants to read a 10k word chapter  
also, new rule. three dot spaces are flashbacks, and one dot spaces are time skips. just so you don’t get confused (:  
anyway, buckle in, because some fucked up shit is about to go down!

Before going to ride on The River Person’s boat again, Alex made the executive decision to tell their favourite friends what they just did. Well, the twins weren’t their _ favourite _ friends, but they needed to tell _ someone _what just happened. The phone rang twice before Kevin picked up. “Hi, Squirt!”

“I’m a wingperson.”

Kevin hesitated on replying. Instead, he chose to ask, “Jack, what’s a wingperson?”

“First of all, I’m pretty sure the term is wingman,” Alex heard Jack start off in the distance. “Second, a wingman is someone who helps you get a date.”

“Oh, that sounds super exciting! Who’d you set up?”

Should they tell them who it was? Or was that an invasion of privacy? “James and Thomas.”

“...Oh.”

He didn’t sound as thrilled as Alex would’ve expected. “So um… that means James is a homosexual, then?”

“Wait, _ James _got set up by him? Who was it?” Jack asked incredulously. “Your… Your friend Thomas.”

“Oh.”

“Um… isn’t homosexuality against The Book of Mormon? I’m pretty sure it is.”

“Yeah. Pretty sure it was punishable by death until a few years ago.”

Fuck. They nervously hung up the phone while they were distracted. That was not good. Alex thinks they accidentally sent their friends down a path to their doom. Shit.

They tried to shake the thought from their head. Maybe they can ignore that this ever happened. James and Thomas aren’t dating and they won’t be executed. Yup. Everything is fine.

Alex took a couple deep breaths to calm themselves down. They needed to continue on their journey home.

They found their way to The River Person once more, and immediately got on the boat. “You look troubled,” The River Person said, frowning. “What’s the matter?”

“My friends might die because of me.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” they said. “If anything, more people will want to live because freedom is a lot closer than they all think it is.” The River Person winked as they said that last bit. If that was supposed to mean something, Alex didn’t get it. “Anyway, I’m guessing you’re heading to Hotland again?”

Alex nodded. This’ll probably be the last time they interact with The River Person, and that kind of made them sad. They liked The River Person. “So we’re off.”

At lightning speed, the duo were in Hotland once more. “Safe travels, Small One,” they said, tipping their not-hat. “Thank you.”

When they made it back up to the first floor of Hotland, they turned to their left. That was strange. The door to The Lab was left open. Maybe Thomas forgot to close the door on their way out to the trash dump. Alex, wanting to make up for accidentally causing their inevitable deaths, they went to close the door.

Inside, they noticed there was a note on the ground. Now Alex was getting suspicious. Either they were standing out with the garbage for a long time and didn’t notice James and Thomas leave, or there was something up with the fast travel technique The River Person used. Either way, they went to go read the note.

The handwriting on the note was barely legible, Alex having to squint their eyes to read what it said.

_ Hi. Thanks for all your help back there. You guys… Your support really means a lot to me. But… as difficult as it is for me to say this, you guys alone can’t magically make my own problems go away. _

_ I want to be a better person. I don’t want to be afraid anymore. And for that to happen, I need to be able to face my own mistakes. I’m going to start doing that now. _

_ I want to be clear. This isn’t anyone else’s problem but mine and my assistant. But if you don’t ever hear from me again… And if you want to know “the truth,” enter the door to the north of this note, and go to the very bottom floor. _

_ You all deserve to know what _ <strike>_ I _</strike> _ we did. _

Faded at the bottom, looking like it had been erased, it also said, _ Jack is just as responsible for this mess that I am. I’m not the only one who should be taking the blame for this. _And that was all he wrote.

Jack was a whole mystery in himself, and he very clearly hid a lot about himself. But working with the royal scientist? On something allegedly so catastrophic that it might cause them to _ disappear _? That was a twist Alex wasn’t expecting.

Deciding that they did, in fact, want to know the truth, they went into the door to their left.

Oh. It was a hallway leading to an elevator. The hallway wasn’t really necessary, but… Oh well. They went inside the elevator.

There were two buttons that were labelled. One that said ‘Studio’ and one that said ‘Basement.’ The bottom floor _ had _to be the basement, so they pressed that button. The elevator door closed, and they began to descend.

Shortly after the elevator started moving, it accelerated. A warning signal played out, repeating, “Warning. Elevator Losing power.” That wasn’t good. That absolutely wasn’t good. Why was the elevator losing power?! That didn’t make any sense!

Then, everything went dark. The light in the elevator shut off and it dropped at an extremely fast pace. And then, it stopped dropping with a bang, and the elevator door opened. Oh boy. They stepped out of the elevator cautiously, unsure of what they would find.

There wasn’t anything dangerous, at least that Alex saw. It was somewhat dark, but they could make out their surroundings. Dark teal walls, darker teal tiles littering the floor, and only one way to go. They went east.

So far, it was just a long, narrow hallway with screens on the wall. The screens didn’t seem to be on until Alex walked up to the first one. _ Entry number one _ , it read. _ This is it. It’s time to do what The King has asked me to do. I will create the power to free us all-- I will unleash the power of the soul. _

Strange. From what Alex knew, they didn’t think it was Thomas who wrote this. This didn’t sound like him at all. They went to the next screen.

_ Entry number two. The barrier is locked by soul power. Unfortunately, this much power cannot be recreated artificially. Soul power can only be derived from what was once living. So, to create more, we will have to use what we have available. _

That was a lot longer than the first one. Intrigued, they went to the next one. _ Entry number three. Extracting the soul from a living person would require incredible power. Besides being impractical, doing so may instantly kill the soul’s host. And, to top it off, there’s some natural phenomenon where a Mormons soul disappears right after death, as opposed to gentiles, whos souls persist. If only there was a way to make a Mormon’s soul last… _

_ Entry number five. _ Where was four? _ I’ve done it. Using the blueprints, I’ve extracted it from the gentile souls. _ Seriously, someone should tell whoever wrote these that gentile isn’t the right word to describe Non-Mormons. _ I believe this is what gives their souls the strength to persist after death. The will to keep living. The resolve to change fate. I’ve dubbed this power “Determination.” _

There were no more screens after that one. Instead, there was a corner, leading to another hallway. Alex went ahead.

The hallway lead to a room with a door in the centre, with four different coloured lights on it. There were also two different directions they could go. And, there was a note on the ground. Alex went up to read it.

It was hard to make out what most of it said, but Alex could read: _ Elevator… Lost power… enter center door. _

When they tried opening the centre door, it was locked. Maybe there was a way to open it. Keys perhaps? They needed to keep exploring to figure that out. The screen next to the door didn’t help either, simply reading “Power Room.”

On the right hall, there was a door that was presumably locked. So, Alex went to the left. There were more screens on the wall. Hopefully they continued off from five.

_ Entry number six. _ Good. They are in order. _ Arnold asked everyone outside The Capitol for people who had “fallen down.” Their bodies came in today, and they’re still comatose. Soon enough, they’re going to die. _

_ I haven’t been home since I’ve been working so much, so it was a surprise to find out that my sister was one of the people brought in. I need to ask Mom about what happened to her. _ That doesn’t sound good in the slightest. _ But, back on the topic of souls, what happens if you inject “determination” into them? If their souls persist after death, then freedom might be closer than we all thought. _

The hallway lead to a musty room with three operating tables. Upon inspection, they all had some kind of sticky residue on them. One can only imagine what that could be.

In the corner, there was another screen. _ Entry number nine. _God damn it. There can’t be a linear story with parts missing. Who arranged these?

_ Things aren’t going well. None of the bodies have died, so I can’t try to get their souls. I told the families I would give them the bodies for the funerals. People are starting to ask me what’s happening. What do I do?! _

_ … _

The phone started to ring. That caught Jack by surprise.

Nobody ever really called him unless some emergency was happening. And there were never any emergencies. After grabbing it out from his pocket and seeing the caller id, reading ‘small blond egg man’ (All of Jack’s contacts had stupid names like that), he answered the phone. “What’s up?”

“So, um, y’know that thing we’ve been working on with the-- with the souls and everything?”

“Yup.”

“Um… none of them have died yet so I haven’t been able to do anything yet…?”

“Why? Can’t you just get their souls from them?”

“Who are you talking to?” Kevin asked, driving his attention away from the television. “Just Thomas.”

“Okay!”

“Anyway,” Thomas started, ignoring Kevin’s interruption in their conversation. “Are you saying that you can grab people’s souls out of their body?”

“Yeah. Can’t everyone? I mean, Kev can do it too--”

“What can I do?”

“Grab people’s souls.”

“Oh yeah! I can!”

“...That’s not normal, Jack,” Thomas said, confusion (and maybe worry) evident in his voice. “It’s not? That’s weird. Anyway, do you want help with, like… getting the souls out of the bodies?”

“Please, if you don’t mind.”

“Cool. I’ll be there in a few.” Jack hung up the phone. “Where are you going?”

“Thomas’s place.”

“Why?”

“Kevin, please, no more questions.” Kevin hugged his knees to his chest and shut his mouth after that. “I’ll probably be gone for awhile, so… I don’t know, do whatever and,” Jack held up his finger before Kevin asked another question, “No. You can’t come with me.” Kevin made a disappointed noise, but said nothing in retaliation.

Jack got up from the couch, went up to his room to get his lab coat, and used a shortcut to get inside The Lab. “Howdy.”  
“What the heck”!” Thomas practically screamed, jumping back and clutching his heart. “Stop doing that! You know how much that scares me!”

“Oops.”

Thomas took a moment to recover from the jumpscare. Once he did, he said, “You know your ‘shortcuts’ aren’t normal either, right?”

Jack shrugged. “Nothing about me is normal.” Thomas hummed an agreement. “Anyway, I was thinking for-- for the injections and everything, we could give each one a different amount, y’know? Start off small and increase the dosage as we go along.”

“That works. Who’re we starting with?”

“Well…” Thomas looked over to the rows of beds, all inhabiting the bodies of people who fell down. “I was thinking we could… We could start with Mel.”

“Mel...? Wait, Melody? Your sister?”

“Yeah… She fell down recently.”

“Shit, dude, that sucks. What happened?”

“I have no idea. I haven’t-- I haven’t been able to talk to my parents at all recently, so…”

“Well, I’m sure what we’re doing will help her out,” Jack said, trying to bring out a more hopeful attitude towards the situation. He wasn’t the best at comforting people. “Yeah, you’re… probably right. We should start now, anyway.” Jack agreed.

Thomas guided him to the bed that Melody occupied, fishing the syringe full of “determination” out of his coat pocket at the same time. “Jesus, she looks terrible.”

“She’s dying, Jack.”

“Oh. I knew that.”

“Just grab her soul, you moron.”

And that’s what Jack did. His left eye began glowing green, and he reached inside Melody’s chest. His hand came out grabbing a turquoise heart. “Hurry up and inject it, these things are slippery.”

…

At the other side of the room, there were three sinks. Alex didn’t want to bother looking at them, there might be more residue on it. However, something was telling them to go over to the sinks.

They turned on each one of the sinks, surprised to find that they were working. Maybe the plumage wasn’t affected by the power outage. At the last sink they turned on, a red key cluttered into the bowl. Alex shoved it in their pocket.

That might be one of the keys for the locked door.

They were grateful for their instincts telling them to go to the sinks. They went to the doorway next to them. There was nothing in there, other than a slot in the wall to put something inside, and another note on the ground. That one was hard to read too, but Alex could make out, _ drain… dropped it. _

Alex assumed that meant the key they found in the sink went into the slot. They tried it, and the key fit perfectly in the slot. A red light started to glow above the slot.

They left the room. Seeing as there was nowhere else to go in that section, they went back to the room with the locked door.

As it turns out, the red key illuminated the red light on the door too. That means there should be three other keys around here somewhere. They checked the smaller door to the right had flashing red light. Alex went up to it, and it opened.

There was a hallway through that door too, this time going to the right. It had screens too. Alex stopped to read both of them.

_ Entry number twelve. _ Why can’t they just be in order?! _ Nothing is happening. I don’t know what to do. Maybe I didn’t inject enough into them? I really want this to work. _

_ Entry number thirteen. One of the bodies opened its eyes. _

These were getting really creepy. Alex went ahead.

After the hallway, there were a series of beds lined up in rows of four. There were about three rows of them. One of the sheets were slightly askew, so Alex went to check it out.

Under the sheets of that bed, there was a yellow key. Cool. They shoved that key in their pocket too.

There were two different ways they could go. To the north or to the east. And there was a screen by the northern doorway, which were actually a set of stairs going downwards. Alex went to see the screen first.

_ Entry number fourteen. Everyone that fell down has woken up. They’re all walking around and talking like nothing is wrong. I thought they were goners…? _

Alex went down the stairs, only to reveal two different ways they could go. Left or right. The left side had a closer screen, so they went west. _ Entry number fifteen. Seems like this research was a dead end… But at least we got a happy ending out of it…? I sent the souls and the vessel back to Arnold, and I called all the families and told them everyone’s alive. I’ll send everyone back tomorrow. :) _

That smiley face lead Alex to believe it was Thomas who wrote these. He’s the only one Alex could think of that would use emoticons. They went forward to the next screen. _ Entry number sixteen. No no no NO NO NO NO _

Alex’s stomach dropped. Something bad must’ve happened here. Something _ very _bad. It made them worry over whatever problem was created, even though they weren’t responsible. They reached another set of stairs near the end of the corridor, but chose to continue going straight.

_ Oh _. In the room at the end of the hallway, there was a large machine in the shape of a skull with tubes inside it hooked to something in the ceiling. Although Alex had never seen one, it looked like a horse skull.

Alex had the urge to backtrack to the stairwell they passed, so they went back in the hallway and went down the stairs. In the room, there was a single shower with a curtain covering it. Nobody seemed to be in it, so they went up to open the shower curtain.

Opening the curtain revealed a green key lying in the bathtub. Alex took it and shoved it in their pocket with the yellow key. They took a deep breath and went to go to the weird skull machine.

There were two ways to go in this room too. A staircase and another hallway. Alex went to towards the other hallway. To their surprise, next to the skull, there was another screen. They read it.

_ DT Extraction Machine. Status: Inactive. _

Oh. So that’s the thing they used to extract determination from the souls. Was it really necessary for it to look like _ that _though? Alex shook the thought from their head and went into the hallway.

There was fog in the room. Alex could barely see anything, reminding them of when they left Snowdin for the first time. It gave them a real deja vu feeling. They decided to go back to the staircase.

They went down and were met with an old television with VHS tapes in a shelf around it, a key slot, and a screen. And, of course, a note on the ground. They went to the note first. _ Under… sheets. _That’s all they could read.

Finding the yellow key in their pocket, they shoved it into the key slot. It fit perfectly. A yellow light flashed on above the slot. Two down, two to go.

They went to inspect the VHS tapes. Most of them were of cartoons. Anime, Alex deciphered. They went to the other shelf.

The same types of cartoons. Except… there were a few stray ones, all without a case. They seemed to be labelled, with either subject one or two written down, along with numbered tests. Curiosity got the best of them, and they grabbed the stray tapes from the shelf to put in the VHS player underneath the television.

Surprisingly, the television still turned on. They popped in the tape labelled ‘Subject 1 Test 1.’ The screen was really fuzzy, and Alex couldn’t really see the man in it clearly. They could, however, make out what was happening.

…

“You really like torturing kids, huh, Doc?” Subject One shouted towards the tripod aimed towards him, hoping the camera would pick that up. The Doctor pinched the bridge of his nose and went behind the screen set up to block him from the laser beamer pointed towards Subject One. “I’m not torturing you, Subject One. Don’t exaggerate things.”

“Oh really? Then why am I strapped to a chair? Hm? And why do you keep us in a cell? You wanna explain how _ that’s _not torture?”

“Stop talking and look at the laser.”

“Y’ trying to kill me or something?”

“If it kills you, then that will be unfortunate. But that’s why we have Subject Two. Subject Two will take your place if you die.”

“Don’t fucking bring him in here if you kill me! You’ll end up killing him too!”

“I’m turning it on now.”

Subject One looked straight at the laser beamer, although he didn’t want to comply with The Doctor’s instructions. Suddenly, a laser full of concentrated energy of some sort was shot into his eye. The Doctor, ignoring the screams Subject One was letting out, wrote down his reaction, the level of energy shooting into him, etc.

After a minute of the laser shooting into Subject One, it automatically turned off. “Interesting,” The Doctor said, scribbling down some notes. “It didn’t affect you as much as I thought it would.”

“What?!” Subject One yelled out through laboured breaths, struggling to get out of the straps constraining him. “You just shot a goddamn laser in my eye and you think it didn’t fucking do anything?!”

“Language, Subject One,” The Doctor replied calmly. “How do you think Subject Two would feel about what you’re saying?”

“Really? You’re going to weaponize my brother against me?! That’s how this is gonna go?!”

“He’s not your brother, Subject One.” The Doctor put his clipboard down and stepped behind the camera to turn it off. “Things can’t be brothers. And you’re both things. So, it would be best for you to stop referring to each other as brothers.”

Click

…

What the hell was that?! Alex couldn’t believe what they’d just watched. This couldn’t be real. That was a kid in that chair being tested on like some animal. The kid wasn’t even being treated like a person. It was like he was an object of some sorts.

Alex felt sick.

Morbid curiosity creeped up on them as they took the tape out of the VCR. Just to find out what Subject Two was like, they grabbed the first VHS of Subject two and popped it in.

They were in the same room as the last tape.

…

“So um… What are we doing in here?” Subject Two asked nervously, unsure of what was happening. He looked like a carbon copy of Subject One. “A test,” The Doctor replied, preparing to turn on the laser beamer. “Oh! Um… Of what?”

“It doesn’t matter. Even if I told you, you wouldn’t understand.”

“But maybe I will! You can just-- Just tell me what’s happening, and--”

“No, Subject Two.” The Doctor interrupted him before Subject Two could go on a tangent. “You’re too stupid to understand.” Subject Two’s face fell. “But… But Jay told me you told _ him _what you’re doing.”

“Subject One is a liar. Just because he was in that chair yesterday doesn’t mean he knows what happened.”

“But Jay said that--”

“Don’t call Subject One that. That’s not his ‘name.’ Now look at the laser and don’t move.”

“Oh, um… Okay. But um… why can’t Jay see out of his left eye anymore?”

“No more questions, Subject Two. Look at the laser.”

The laser was fired into Subject Two’s eye, just like what had happened to Subject One. “Hm. Same reaction as Subject One,” The Doctor muttered, writing down notes on the paper attached to his clipboard. Subject Two let out pained cries as the laser continued shooting energy-- determination-- into his eye.

The laser shut off after a minute. Subject Two started to sob. “What was that?!” The Doctor, ignoring Subject Two’s question, muttered, “Hm. Not much of a change for you either. Next time I’m increasing the dosage.”

“There’s a next time?!”

Click.

…

Alex didn’t think they could stomach another tape. God knows how much worse it could’ve gotten for those two. They’ve seen some graphic things before, but this was on a whole other level. But the tapes got them thinking.

There were two boys in the tapes who looked exactly the same. One was hot-headed, witty (At least, that’s how the man in the video probably differentiated them IQ-wise), and sarcastic. The other was nervous, ignorant, and curious. The other one asked a lot of questions. Some type of energy was used as an experiment on them. Subject Two referred to Subject One as ‘Jay’ and Subject One referred to Subject Two as his brother. Suddenly, things seemed to click into place for Alex.

The boys in the tape were Jack and Kevin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i bet you weren’t expecting that one, huh? B^) i’ve been wanting to go off on jack and kevin’s origin story for so long and like. bro. i’m just. sjfjjffjjfjfjgj  
this isn’t even all of it, there’s gonna be more lmfao and it’ll be just as bad as the tapes, although not as graphic PROBABLY  
anyway, i’m almost at the nanowrimo goal! and i’m so proud of myself odmfkfkjdjf  
i should finish up the last 2k before i go to bed so... goodnight and happy thanksgiving to the americans who get this far! because this chapter was released on thanksgiving >>


	12. The True Lab, Part 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> see? i said this chapter was going to add up to like 10k if it was merged with chapter 11, and i was right  
i’m sorry for the second vent session, even if it wasn’t literally a vent, but still. i had to get the backstory out somehow. and,,, i wanted to add more flashbacks lol  
that’ll probably the end of the flashbacks, at least for this fic lol  
that’s about it though  
also, trigger warning for child abuse again. that’s,,,, here again too. and also if you get triggered by panic attacks for some reason??? then that’s here too  
jack is not alright

It all started to make sense. The numbers on their hands, the shortcuts, everything. Even Jack’s involvement with Thomas was starting to make sense. Jesus Christ.

They took a deep breath and collected their thoughts. Okay. Now, along with the determination experiments, they were going to try and find everything they could about The Twins and why they were in this lab, other than the fact that they were being used for experiments too.

Alex got up and popped the VHS out of the VCR. They put them back in the shelf and sighed. Then, they went up to the screen on the wall to see what it said. _ Entry number four. _So that’s where it was.

_ I’ve been researching Gentiles to see if I could find any info about their souls. I ended up snooping around the castle and I found these weird tapes. There were some other ones too, but those were in this room already when I got here… I don’t think Arnold’s watched any of these… I don’t think he should, either. _

Yeah, no, he should watch these tapes. Then, he can find whoever conducted the experiments on The Twins and execute them. This should not be tolerable.

They rubbed their face to get back into the mood of exploring. What a mess this was.

They went out of the VHS room and to the room with the fog they went into earlier. They walked through the fog, barely able to see, until they bumped into the wall. It was a dead end. They began walking back, feeling for any sort of object to grab onto.

Their hand was met with something warm and moist, and somewhat sticky. They pulled their hand away quickly, scared of what they just touched. It left gross residue on their hand.

They wiped their hand on their pants and finally got out of the room. They passed the DT Extractor again and went back into the hall that lead them there in the first place. Instead of going back the way they came in, they went straight to the area they hadn’t explored yet.

Huh. This room was foggy too, but there were fans covering the wall. They could at least see in this room. Looking at the wall, they could see a screen. They read it.

_ Entry number eleven. Now that Connor’s made it big, he barely talks to me anymore. Except when he feels the need to complain about his coworkers and “How bad they are at their jobs.” I think the fame’s getting to his head. He was never as, and excuse my language please, bitchy when we were younger. As much as I love him, I don’t think it’s good that we’re friends anymore. But… he’s the only friend I have, so I guess I’ll suffer through it. _

Wow. McKinley did _ not _ sound like the type of person anyone would want to be around. He was rude when Alex met him, and he sounds worse coming from Thomas’s perspective. They shook the thought from their head. They needed to get out of here.   
Alex went to the back of the room to try and find a way to turn on the fans. Maybe they’ll clear up the fog surrounding the room. There was a button at the edge of the room, and Alex pressed it.

Suddenly, the fans turned on and all the fog blew away. There was nothing of interest in the room, so Alex went away.

Actually, now that they think about it, maybe the extremely foggy room by the DT Extractor was cleared up. They’ll make sure to go back down that way later. They went down the hallway once more, this time going back to the room with the beds and went into the room on the east side.

There were mirrors along the wall, separated by screens, and potted flowers lining the opposite wall. They went to the first screen they came across. _ Entry number seven. _

_ We’ll need a vessel to wield the Mormon souls when the time comes. After all, a Mormon can’t absorb the souls of other Mormons. Just as a Gentile can’t absorb another Gentile’s soul. So then… what about something that’s neither a Mormon nor a Gentile? _

It cut off there. They went to the next one. _ Entry number ten. Experiments on the vessel have failed. It doesn’t seem to be any different from the control cases. Whatever. They’re a hassle to work with anyway. The seeds just stick to you and won’t let go. I should tell Jack about this later, he’d get a good laugh out of this. _

Alex wordlessly turned their head towards the potted flowers. Did Thomas use them for experiments? If he did, Alex didn’t want to go near them. They continued down the corridor.

There were only two screens as far as they could tell, because the rest of the wall was just lined with mirrors. They reached the end, and found a set of stairs. They went through.

There was a key slot and a note on the ground. The legible parts of the note said, _ cold. _

Alex doesn’t recall getting a key from somewhere that’s cold. It must be the foggy room. They began their journey back to the foggy room.

While they walked, they started wondering about The Twins. If they were in this lab, how did they get out? Or were they from here? Or… What if The Doctor was their father and they lived here?

None of those answers were good answers. Each were equally terrible.

They made it to the foggy room, only to find that it wasn’t foggy anymore. There were two fridges, and a screen on the wall. But… nothing sticky seemed to be around. What did they touch if there’s nothing like that around? Alex shook the thought from their head and went up to the screen. _ Entry number nineteen. _

_ The families keep calling me to ask when everyone is coming home. What am I supposed to say? I don’t even answer the phone anymore. _

They did something to those people. There was no doubt about it. Maybe they were accidentally killed...? The screens will probably tell them. Between two of the fridges, there was a screen. _ Entry number twenty. Arnold left me five messages today. Four about everyone being angry, one about this cute teacup he found that looks like a cat. Thanks, Arnold. _

Between another two fridges, there was a screen. Alex should probably start calling them entries. _ Entry number twenty one. I spend all my time at the garbage dump now. It’s my element. _That was all that was written. What did that even mean?

They could figure it out later. They went ahead, since there were no more screens between the fridges. They found a blue key laying on the ground.

Afterwards, they went down the set of stairs. There was a note on the ground, but no key. Alex ignored the note and put the only key they had left into the slot. The green key fit into it.

They went back out to go to the flower room again. They went to the last slot and put the blue key into it. The blue light above the slot flickered on, and they left.

That was all the keys, and the centre door should be open now, but something didn’t feel right. There had to be some information on the experiments involving The Twins.

In the room with all the beds, they noticed a doorway they must’ve missed to the south. That was the only place left to explore, so they went towards it.

It was a hallway with several doors. This hallway didn’t have any screens. The doors lead to rooms full of nothing, except one with a single file case. Alex dashed towards it. This _ must _have the answers to the mystery.

But, the cabinets were all empty. Except for the bottom one, which had two lone files sitting at the bottom of it. Alex picked up the one on top, which was labelled _ J-001. _This must be Jack’s.

It had basic information about him, such as hair colour, eye colour, blood type, those types of things, accompanied with a headshot. Jack looked pissed in the headshot. There was also a margin for notes at the bottom.

_ Aggressive. Will oppose any sort of interaction. Extremely protective of K-002. Keep him locked up. _

From what Alex had seen, none of that was true, except the protective part. Jack was more of the lazy type who couldn’t be bothered with fighting. But he didn’t oppose any interactions with anyone. Maybe that’s what he was like when he was treated like an animal in a cage. They set down Jack’s file and picked up Kevin’s, labelled _ K-002. _

There was the same type of information, a headshot of him too, albeit Kevin was smiling, and notes at the bottom. _ Docile. Clingy. Needs attention constantly, but mostly gets it from J-001. Is not allowed to roam around, but is allowed out. _

That seemed more accurate to Kevin. But… There was still one question on their mind. They remembered Kevin saying he didn’t remember anything about where he got the tattoo on his hand from, he didn’t know why there was a large empty space in the family portrait in their house…

The portrait. How could Alex have forgotten the portrait? They were right there in front of him, looking almost the same as they had in the video tapes. The empty space didn’t make complete sense, but now they think the empty space was where The Doctor-- their father-- used to be. This absolutely was not normal.

Back to the thought about Kevin not remembering any of it. There had to be a reason for that, right? You can’t just forget something like _ that _happening to you. Maybe Jack can answer their questions.

They continued looking to see if any of the rooms had anything in it. Nope. Empty. Every single one of them were empty.

At the end of the hall, however, was a stairwell. There _ has _to be something down that stairwell. They went down. Instantly, they were met with two large tubes, both of which had smaller tubes connected into the ceiling. Probably as a power source.

Upon closer inspection, the tubes had labels that matched The Twins’s file names. J-001 and K-002. Did they come from these tubes…? It seemed like a likely possibility now. They went ahead.

There weren’t many other areas left to explore here. There were two doors, one east and one west. They went to the east one first.

Inside, it was a small room, but it wasn’t entirely empty. There was a lone bench, held up by chains, on the wall. This must’ve been their room. There was nothing to indicate such, but the ‘bed’ seemed to indicate that they stayed in there. They left the room to go to the other one.

In the west room, Alex immediately recognized the single chair in the room. That was the one from the videos. The straps were on it and everything.

But the laser beamer was gone. Maybe it was taken apart? Alex didn’t know, but they didn’t want to explore further. The room gave them a bad feeling.

They decided to get back to the main area and to the centre door. They should probably get out of this place.

Once they left the southern area, they turned around to find that the doorway disappeared. Feeling at the wall revealed that there was _ only _solid wall. Alex didn’t like that. They tried to shake away the bad feeling that gave and went off to go to the centre door.

Once they walked for a little while, navigating their way back, they reached the door. When walked up to, it opened up. It seemed to be an elevator that also lost power. Alex went to the hallway to the left.

Oh. The screens were back. They went up to the first one. It was turned off. The next one was turned off too. That was… not right. They went to the stairway at the end of the hall.

The room was larger than the other rooms lead by stairs were. Actually, that was probably because of the power generator in it. They went up to the generator and pressed down the handle switch to turn the power back on.

The lights turned back on. That seemed to work out well for them in the end. They turned around to get back to the elevator at the beginning, but was met with a grisly sight.

People— melting people— were squishing into the room to try to get to Alex. They almost let out a scream.

What the hell were these things?! Were they the people that were injected with determination?! Alex didn’t know what they wanted, but they kept coming towards them.

Suddenly, Jack appeared, probably having used one of his shortcuts to get there. “Squirt?!” he yelled, taken aback by Alex’s presence. “What the fu— Oh God.” He turned around. “Everyone out. Go on, get outta here, you don’t belong in here.”

Jack shooed them away, until it was just him and Alex in the room. “How the hell did you get here, Kid?!” Jack questioned, shaking. He seemed to be spiralling into a frenzy. He was smiling, but Alex couldn’t tell from what. “Nobody’s supposed to be here, how the _ fuck _ did you get here?! The door’s supposed to be locked at all times, Thomas said it was locked at _ all times— _“

Alex couldn’t stop themselves from thinking it. They just had to. They pointed to Jack, and the headband simply said, “Subject One.”

Jack’s face paled. He nervously grabbed Alex’s shoulders, looking him right in the face. “Where the _ fuck _did you hear that name?!”

“The video tapes.”

That was it. The last straw. Jack finally lost his composure, and now he couldn’t stop laughing. “Of course! Of fucking course _ you _ of all people would find those fucking tapes he made!” He let go of Alex in favour of crouching down into himself, his hands— both of them— tangling through his hair. “I didn’t think they were still here! But they are! Those tapes are still fucking here and I don’t know where the _ fuck _they are! Fuck!”

Alex would be lying if they said they weren’t a little scared of what was happening in front of them. Suddenly, they heard Thomas’s voice echo through the room. “Jack?! Are you okay?!”

When Thomas entered the room, he too was surprised at Alex’s presence. “How’d you get in here?!”

“Thomas! Buddy!” Jack said, getting up from his position on the floor. He stumbled as he stood up. There were tear tracks on his cheeks. “You’ll never believe what this little bastard found!”

Thomas was left frozen. He didn’t know what was happening with Jack either. “He found the tapes! He found the fucking tapes my father made when he was _ torturing _us! Can you fucking believe it?!”

Thomas looked towards Alex, who simply shrugged. They were both concerned about Jack now. “And to think I thought they disappeared when I killed him! Wow!”

_ Oh. _The laughter slowly but surely turned into crying. “Fuck!”

“Oh geez,” Thomas muttered, rushing over to Jack to comfort him. “It was probably an accident, alright? There’s no need to get upset.”

“You don’t get it! Those tapes aren’t an accident! He made them to document the shit he put us through, probably for his own sick amusement!”

Thomas didn’t know what to say after that. He wasn’t going to mention how he found those tapes first and left them on the shelf, just like Alex_ knew _ he did. They could see the guilt seeping through his features too. “Me and Kev aren’t even supposed to be alive! We’re not real people! We were made in this god forsaken lab as experiments to see if artificial life could be created from pre-existing DNA! He didn’t even believe we were human because _ he _made our souls with chunks of his and some from the fallen Non-Mormons!”

So _ that’s _ how those two were made. That might explain the tube too…? Jack’s eyes widened, and he looked at Alex again. “How do you know about the tubes?! The area with the tubes has been blocked off for forever now!”   
“Found the door.”

“How the fuck did you find the door if it’s blocked off?!”

Alex shrugged. They didn’t know how they found it either if it was blocked off. “Y’know what?” Thomas spoke up. “We should-- We should get out of here for a little bit. See if that helps.” Alex agreed. This place didn’t seem like the best place to be right now. It was causing too much stress.

Jack wiped his eyes with his sleeve and took a shaky breath. “Probably,” he muttered. “I’ve always hated this god forsaken place anyway.”

“Wanna use one of your shortcuts? It’ll be faster.”

The question was answered when they were all instantly transported to the “lab” upstairs. “Jesus…”

“Are you okay?” the headband asked for Alex. Jack rubbed his eyes and sighed. “Yeah, sorry. I probably scared you guys real good, huh?”

Silence. Jack shifted uncomfortably. “Sorry.”

“You don’t have anything to apologize for,” Thomas said, fidgeting with his hands. “You were just panicked. I can’t say I know how you feel, but…”

Alex should be the one apologizing. They’re the one who decided to be nosy and go through the real lab. They’re the one who watched the tapes. They’re the one who _ brought up _ the tapes with someone who was in them. It’s their fault. “Fuck, is there a place to sit down? I need to sit down.”

“Hold on, I’ll pull out my bed.”

“Why, is it one of those couch-bed hybrids?”

Thomas went up the stairs to the second floor. “Shut up.”

Alex went up the stairs too, although not as fast as Thomas did. The bed was, in fact, a pull out bed. It was rather small for a bed in their opinion. Right as Thomas finished pulling out the bed, Jack teleported right on top of it. “Guess I owe you guys an explanation, huh?” he said, stretching his arms.

“You don’t have to,” Thomas replied, sitting at the foot of the bed. “It must be hard dealing with everything that’s happened.”

Jack took a deep breath and closed his eyes. “You have no idea, Buddy.”

“I want to know what happened,” the headband said. “Course you do, I’m a mystery,” Jack replied, opening one of his eyes. “A bunch of shit happened here, y’know. But uh… I’ve never told the story before, so I don’t know how well that’ll go.”

Alex sat next to Thomas on the bed. They can tell it’s a long story.”

“Alright, so.” Jack made a motion with his hand. “Let’s start where it all began. So my father started off with this theory that life can be created with fragments of souls. I don’t know how many fell down when we were made, but I know we have pieces of two different souls. Mine’s green and Kev’s is blue. The souls from the fallen Non-Mormons mostly made up ours, but my father used pieces from his to use on us too. Which is why—“ Jack reached into his chest and pulled out a green heart. “—some of our souls are missing.”

“Why are his pieces missing?”

“Well— I’ll get to that. It’s at the end of the story. Anyway, he used some DNA samples from himself because, y’know, humans aren’t made up of _ just _their souls. And with some sciency stuff that I don’t know, he ended up making us. But like… we were in these large tubes full of some sort of… stabilizing liquid? He never really told us what it was. And that’s where we first woke up.”

…

Looking around the room, Jack took in every detail around him. Everything was dark, with grey walls and black floors. Most of it was muddied through light blue due to the liquid he was floating in. Then he looked to his left. There was another boy in a tube right next to his, looking around just as he was. He moved towards the glass and lightly knocked on it.

The other boy looked at him, and his eyes widened. He went towards the glass too and pressed his face against it to get a better look at Jack.

Jack wanted to see him. Well, he was seeing him right now, but he wanted to see the boy out of the tube. Maybe one day he will.

…

“So you were just _ stuck _in there with nothing to do other than look at each other?”

“Pretty much. Well, until he took us out of there and put us in our cell. Then we could do whatever. Well, whatever we could do inside the cell. Most of the time, we just kind of sat there and talked to each other. I mean, not at first, he had to teach us how to speak, but still. It was okay for the first month or so, but…”

…

“Where are we going?” Jack asked quietly as The Doctor lead him into a room with a chair. “We need to get you marked.” Jack looked down. “What do you mean?”

“You’ll see. Sit in the chair.”

He did as he was told. “How come Two couldn’t come with us?”

“If Subject Two was here, he would interfere with the process.”

“Oh… Okay, then. I don’t see how he would, though. It would be better if he was here, because he gets upset when I’m not around.”

“Enough talking, Subject One,” The Doctor changed subjects and strapped Jack to the chair. His left hand was in there particularly tight. “This will hurt, so try not to struggle.”

“Why will it hurt?”

The question was left unanswered. “It will hurt more if you struggle, Subject One, so try your best to stay still.”

After that, Jack felt the worst, most indescribable pain he has ever felt in his life. It felt like every single inch of the back of his hand was on burning, and that it would light on fire at any second. He couldn’t see what was going on because the tears filling his eyes blurred his vision.

Although the procedure was quick, it was agonizing on him. He decided he hated The Doctor. If he actually cared about him, or Two, he wouldn’t have done this.

Only an evil person would do something like this.

The restraints were loosened, and Jack started rubbing his eyes, trying to make the tears go away. His hand hurt like hell, and the pain wouldn’t go away. It didn’t feel like burning anymore, but it still hurt.

He took a look at his hand. In bold black lettering, _ 001 _ was embedded in his hand. Jack started to cry harder.

…

“And that’s how we got these things on our hands,” Jack finished, raising up his left hand to show the tattoo. “It hasn’t faded at all, which is surprising. Me and Kev are nineteen and they both look brand new.”

Neither Thomas nor Alex knew how to add on. This was a lot to comprehend. And, Alex couldn’t help but wince at the thought of getting those things on. Ouch. “That was the first thing that happened. And, well, I assume you _ both _saw the tapes he made when he shot all that shit into us.”

Thomas didn’t say anything. Alex took that as a yes. “So I won’t go _too_ into detail with everything he did, but it was really bad. And what’s worse is that he treated Kevin like a spare. He used both of us for his experiments, but acted like Kevin was less of a human than I was. It was awful.”

Jack rolled onto his side. “Anyway, I’m going to skip a little bit, alright? One day we managed to escape the cell while our father was on break. Y’see, he left every few hours for maybe… forty five minutes to take a break and hang out outside. Maybe to have a smoke or something, even if cigarettes are against Mormonism. To be honest, I don’t think he even believed in Mormonism in the first place. If he did, then I’d be surprised. I’m pretty sure child abuse is against the religion. Not my point, my point is we managed to get out of the cell one day. Then, we ran around trying to find our way out. And, in case you two couldn’t tell, the large is fucking _ huge _. And, it connects to The Core. Our father always went to The Core during his breaks. Probably to get as far away from us as possible.”

He rolled to his other side. “Eventually we found him. He didn’t hear us fast enough to react. And, well… I pushed him into The Core. And, in case you couldn’t tell, when you fall into The Core, you’re erased from existence entirely. Nobody remembers you, and the world goes on as if you weren’t ever there. I didn’t know that, but it worked out for us in the end. With him went all his work, minus us for some reason. Everything he’d done was gone, including the section Squirt over here found in The Lab. Anyway, one moment I was trying to get Kevin to stop trying to go after our father, then the next I woke up in Snowdin under an abandoned sentry station.

…

Jack gasped when he woke up. Where was he…?

He was under an old booth of sorts in a place he didn’t recognize. Two was in his lap, softly snoring as he slept. He looked down at his hand, seeing that the marking was still there.

This was strange. He noticed he was wearing a brown leather jacket, one that matched the one Two was wearing. He didn’t want to disturb Two while he was sleeping, but he gently shook his shoulder.

Two’s eyes fluttered open, but then he raised his arms over his head and yawned. “Something wrong, Jack?” he said after he finished yawning. “Who’s Jack?”

Two chuckled and snuggled his head back into the crook of Jack’s neck. “Did you forget your name again? You really need to work on that. Don’t tell me you forgot _ my _name too.”

Jack shifted uncomfortably. If his name was Jack now, then what was Two called? “Um… Kay?”  
“It’s Kevin, Jack. My name is Kevin. I can’t believe you keep forgetting.”

Where’d they get these names from? This was confusing. “Can you tell me why we’re here?”

“You should know this already, but… okay. We’re homeless and we unofficially live under this booth. And the nice lady at the bakery gives us free cinnarolls, and that’s all we eat. Well, except when we find leftovers behind the restaurant. But yeah, that’s pretty much it.”

Jack looked to the side. “What about Dad?”

“What dad?” Kevin asked. Now _ he _ was confused. “We’re orphans, remember?”

Oh. _ Oh. _The Doctor’s gone. Never existed probably. Then… why did Jack remember him, but Kevin didn’t?

…

“And since then, that’s just how it’s been. Turns out the house we moved into was our father’s. It was weird at first, but soon enough, it felt like home. And now we’re here.”  
“Wow…” Thomas muttered, running a hand through his hair. And you’ve just been keeping that bottled up this entire time?”   
“Pretty much. If you think I’m gonna tell Kev, then you’re dead wrong. Pun not intended. It’s better if he doesn’t know. It’ll absolutely destroy him.”

Jack sat up and hugged his knees to his chest. “Anyway, I kind of want to go home now. This Kid probably wants to go home too.” He gestured to Alex when referring to them. “Where were you before I interrupted your travelling last night?”

“The resort.”

“Oh, right, the resort, okay. Yeah, I’ll bring you there, and then you can go home. Sound good?

Alex nodded. “Alright. I’ll see you later, Thomas,” Jack said, finally standing up. “Bye.” And with that, Jack used a shortcut to bring Alex back to The CMC Resort. “In case we never see each other again,” Jack started, ruffling Alex’s hair. “Just know you’re the coolest little dude I’ve ever met.”

“You too, Jack.”

Without a goodbye, Jack was gone, presumably to go to bed and go to sleep. Alex sighed. They had a new perspective of the world after all of that. They were extremely lucky to be raised in a loving household with their entire family there. They braced themselves for the last stretch of their journey. “Let’s do this.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i’m going to guess that there’ll be about 3 more chapters after this??? i can’t be sure though lol  
also!! it’s the last leg of nanowrimo! i’m so excited to hit 50k lol this is my first time participating in nanowrimo and it might be my first time winning too *w*  
i’m going out for black friday tomorrow, though, so i don’t know how much i’ll let myself get done  
but, if i don’t update tomorrow or saturday, i’ve most likely hit 50k anyway lol  
alright i’m going to finish up tonights session now. bye! uwu


	13. The Core/New Home

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ITS THE DAWN OF THE FINAL DAY OF NANOWRIMO AND I HAVE TO WORK MY ASS OFF BC WE DIDNT COME HOME TODAY UNTIL MIDNIGHT BC WE STOPPED AT THE GUITAR HOTEL IN HOLLYWOOD HSJDFJFJ  
anyway  
i know this chapter is short, but so will the next few be lmao the end. is. near  
and im so proud of myself for getting this far in nanowrimo lmao thats so wack  
also i want everyone to know that ive been following the steam train playthrough for this so like. yeah  
anyway enjoy!

They were faced with the resort once more. But now, they could go inside without anyone stopping them.

Well, Jack didn’t necessarily  _ stop  _ them, more invited them for dinner and they accepted. They didn’t have to, but they did anyway. They didn’t regret taking that detour, though.

They pushed open the glass doors of the resort and stepped inside. It was a lot nicer than they anticipated. There were gold and orange tile lining the floors, and a statue of, of course, McKinley, atop a fountain. He owned the resort, sure, but the statue was a little much, at least in Alex’s opinion. Egotistical maniac.

Seeing as this was a resort, Alex didn’t bother going into the hallway to their right. They assumed those were some rooms, and they didn’t want to bother anyone. As they walked past the burger joint by the exit (Why there were two places to go get food in this place, Alex didn’t know), they recognized the girl working behind the counter. She was one of the background dancers on McKinley’s show. They went inside to talk to her.

“Welcome to CMC Emporium, home of the Wham Burger!” she said, forcing a smile onto her face. “You’re the girl from TV,” Alex thought immediately, the headband echoing those thoughts out loud. The girl’s smile grew wider, and her eyebrows furrowed. “Yup. That’s me. Please buy something.”

“What happened? Why do you work here now?”

The girl looked like she was in pain from smiling so much. “I’m sorry, but I’m not allowed to talk to customers who haven’t bought anything.”

“But I don’t have any money.”

The girl looked up at the camera on the wall that was pointed in her direction. She debated whether or not to give Alex something for free. “Where are your parents?”

“On the surface.”

Realization slapped her right in the face. “You’re from the surface?!” Alex nodded. “Oh gosh, this is it!” The girl said, her face lighting up. “We’re all going to be free soon! Oh gosh, Kid, when you free us all, I won’t forget you, I promise! I’ll always be grateful for your sacrifice!”   
Alex didn’t plan on dying, but they guessed she thought that they were going to. “Oh! And don’t forget my name either, you’ll probably recognize me when I make it big!” She grinned, this time it being real. “Remember the name Veronica! Veronica Hart!”

“Can do. I have to go now.” Alex waved and turned away. “Bye, Veronica.”

“Goodbye! And thank you!”

The glass doors of the burger place shut, and Alex went towards the end of the resort. That way must be to The Core. And it was, because two gold doors were in their path, and a sign that said  _ Core  _ was above it. Alex went through the doors.

Orange wood, which faded into blue as it got closer to The Core, lined the way into the place. Alex went forward. Underneath the entrance to The Core were various metal pipes leading into god knows where. They all plunged into darkness, as far as Alex could see. They went inside The Core.

There was an elevator in front of them, and they went up to see if it worked. It did not.

There were two different ways they could go, but it seemed like they both went in the same direction. The two paths were separated by the elevator. Alex decided to go on the left.

A corridor leading to a doorway was what was on that path. The floor was dark blue, with lighter lines aligning to make geometric patterns. Neat. Alex went through the doorway.

They went through, turned a corner after hitting a wall, and saw there was a laser beam blocking their path. There was a red button on the wall right next to the laser, and they pressed it. The laser was gone.

The bridge crossing an abyss was entirely made of glass. That worried Alex about their safety. They sprinted across the glass, hoping they wouldn’t fall through. They got across without a scratch, so they went ahead.

They were met with an intersection. One way going forward and the other way going to their left. Trusting their gut, they went straight. Above another abyss, there was a bridge. The bridge, however, was not made of glass like the last one, this time being constructed of metal. There were also lasers moving across it.

They didn’t remember who said it, but they knew they were told that blue lasers meant stop and orange lasers meant move. So, doing their best to avoid being hurt by the lasers, they went ahead.

Somehow, they got through without making a single mistake. That was ironic, because they made many mistakes before reaching The Core. However, they weren’t off the bridge yet, for a block of blue lasers covered the rest of it. The only person they could think of to call was Thomas. They dialed his number.

“Hello! Do you need any help getting through The Core?”

“Yeah. There’s blue lasers blocking the path.”

“Oh. Give me a second, I’ll turn them off for you.” In an instant, the lasers were turned off. “There you go! Call if you need anything, just call!” Click. They went ahead.

After the bridge, there was another crossroad, this time going in three directions. Alex chose to go east. There was another bridge, although it was much shorter than the last. Underneath was a substance that was pure white. Maybe that’s what Jack pushed The Doctor into to kill him. Yikes. They tried not to think about it too much as they crossed it.

After the bridge, there was another crossroad. They decided to continue going east, like they had done at the crossroad before. There was another bridge, but this down it had rails. That made Alex feel a little bit better, considering that underneath was more of that white substance. It was a long bridge, so it took a minute for them to cross it.

Once they did, they saw an elevator at the edge of the room. Maybe they’d already made it to the end of The Core, and this elevator connected to the one from the entrance. Whatever. They went into the doorway beside the elevator.

There was another hallway that lead to a corner and one last elevator. The corridor to the elevator was long, but Alex persisted. When they reached the elevator, they went inside and pressed the one button inside.

As the elevator whirred upwards, Alex thought back through their entire journey. They thought about the friends they made, the places they went… everything.

They were going to miss the underground. And to a larger extent, the Mormons. They weren’t as bad as everyone made them out to be.

The elevator dinged, and the door opened. Alex went through. Everything was monotone, with grey being the primary colour. Grey bricks to make the wall, grey path to make the walkway… It was just grey. Alex went ahead.

Up ahead, there was an elevator that didn’t work. So, they went to the side instead. Many buildings littered the skyline, showing just how busy the capital of the underground was. It too was grey. Alex walked down the path.

After a long path, still only grey, they were met with a quaint little house. Alex’s heart ached.

It looked just like Naba’s house.

It was still grey, but it looked exactly the same. Now they were feeling home sick, and they wanted to see Naba again. They took a deep breath and went inside.

The interior was the same as Naba’s house too. It was grey, but it still gave them that feeling of  _ home _ . The way they went through to exit The Ruins must be the same for exiting this house. However, there were two locks on a chain blocking the way downstairs, so Alex decided to look for the keys.

They went towards the kitchen first. On top of the sink, there was a green key. Alex took it.

They noticed the trash can had many balled up pieces of paper. Upon inspection, they were all crumpled up recipes for cherry-apple pie. They went to look for the other key before the nostalgia they were feeling made them sad.

They went towards the bedrooms. They remembered how happy Naba was to give them their own room. It hurts to think about her. They refrained from going inside any of the bedrooms. Luckily, they found the second key in the hallway, so they didn’t have a need to go inside the bedrooms.

They unlocked the chains, and went downstairs. Now they were thinking of when they left The Ruins. They remembered how sad Naba was to see them leave, and how she desperately wanted them to stay. This was tugging on their heartstrings a little too much for their liking. They tried to shake the thoughts from their head. Now was not the time to be nostalgic. They needed to move forward and think ahead to their fight with The King.

The layout of the house was the same as Naba’s, right down to the path in the basement. Although this path didn’t lead to the exit of The Ruins, but instead a view of more buildings in the distance. It brought a sense of tranquility to Alex, even if their encounter with The King was drawing nearer.

At the end of the path, the elevator that the one before the house connected to was there. There was no need to use it, so they ignored it. They turned a corner, and was met with a large hall, with golden walls and orange tiles. Pillars lined the walls as light seeped through the windows.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *megalovania doesnt play because nobody died*


	14. Judgement

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> another short chapter, i know /: but i wanted to make the judgement section its own thing just because i can  
i like how it turned out ngl  
it wouldve been done with this a couple hours ago but i got in a voice call with my friends that lasted literally 2 hours so hshdhjdjfkfk oops  
anyway, heres the chapter! uwu

As they walked through the corridor, their footsteps echoed throughout the room. It was truly a large room, with the ceiling taller than anything Alex had ever seen, and the walls seemed to span into infinity. They managed to make it to the middle of the room before being jumpscared. Kevin had seemingly appeared out of nowhere. Alex knew better, though. They saw Jack behind him when he showed up, and then saw him disappear a second later. Kevin smiled and waved at Alex. “Hi, Squirt!”

Alex waved back, unsure of what to make of this. “So, um, usually Jack’s the one to do this thing, but he’s not feeling well so I’m doing it instead! Oh gosh, where do I start?”

“Take your time.”

Kevin cleared his throat and smiled again. “So you’ve finally made it to the end of your journey, huh? In a few moments, you’ll meet King Arnold! That must be so exciting!”

It really didn’t sound that exciting. The King will most likely kill them, and they weren’t ready for that. “Well, together you’ll determine the future for our world! But uh, that’s then. Right now, you’re gonna be judged for your actions throughout your adventure!”

Why? Alex didn’t do anything wrong. There was no need to judge them. “You’ll be judged for every EXP you’ve earned too! What’s EXP? It’s an acronym!” Kevin looked at Alex with this expression that they couldn’t quite describe. It was kind of scary. “It stands for  _ execution points _ . A way of quantifying the pain you’ve inflicted on others. When you kill someone, your EXP increases.”

Alex didn’t kill anyone, though so…? “When you have enough EXP, your LOVE increases!” Kevin’s smile returned to his face at the first sentence, but then it dropped again when he spoke the next. “LOVE is an acronym too. It stands for  _ level of violence.  _ A way of measuring someone’s capacity to hurt. The more you kill, the easier it becomes to distance yourself. And the more you distance yourself, the less  _ you’ll  _ hurt. The more easily you can bring yourself to hurt others.”

Kevin sighed, and smiled again. He probably can’t count any of this stuff, so Jack had to tell him everything he had to say. “Don’t worry, though! You never gained any LOVE! But that doesn’t mean you’re completely naive or innocent. Just that you kept a certain tenderness in your heart! And no matter the struggles or hardships you faced, you strived to do the right thing! Which is good, you should always do the right thing if you can. And you refused to hurt anyone!”

Not to be rude, but was there a point to this spiel? “Even when you ran away, you did it with a smile! And if I were you, I probably would’ve done that too.Anyway, you never gained LOVE, but you gained love! Does that make sense?”

Maybe. Alex would have to think about it to have it make sense. “Now you’re about to face the greatest challenge of your journey. Your actions here will determine the fate of the entire world. If you refuse to fight, Arnold will take your soul and destroy humanity. But if you kill Arnold and go home, then… we’ll remain trapped underground… And that would make us all sad.”

Kevin frowned and thought of what he would say next. “To be honest, if any of us were in your shoes, we probably would’ve given up by now. But you didn’t! And that’s because you have something called ‘determination.’”

Alex didn’t know if they liked the fact that they had determination, considering what it had done to those people in The Lab. They shook at the thought of those poor people. “So, as long as you hold on and do what’s in your heart, I believe you can do the right thing! So…”

Kevin smiled sadly. “We’re all counting on you, Squirt. Hopefully you’ll do what you think is right. And before I go, I just wanted to tell you how proud I am of you.”

Oh? “I know you’ve only been down here for a day, but you’ve managed to make such an impact on everyone! You’ve made so many friends and helped so many people… It’s almost sad to see it all end like this. We’ll miss you, Squirt. All of us. Well, I shouldn’t take up any more of your time. Good luck!”

Kevin waved goodbye and went to leave the hall the same way Alex had come in. Alex took a moment to process what Kevin had just said.

The fate of the world was in their hands. It was up to them on what happens to the Mormons, on whether they’re liberated or not. There was a lot of weight on their shoulders at that very moment. They took a deep breath and continued forward.

Kevin’s words echoed in their head.  _ Their actions here will determine the fate of the entire world. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ok, NOW i think there’ll be 3 more chapters left lmao  
the story,,, is gonna end,,, and im so sad  
but at the same time this is the first fic ive ever actually posted and finished so like w a c k sbfjfjfjfj  
ok im tired goodnight lol


	15. The End

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i rushed to get this done and it probably shows, but i tried lol  
also heres your one sided mcpriceley you crack whores, go fetch  
thanks for making it this far! (:  
also, trigger warning for homophobic slurs. its only once so you should be fine, but like just in case  
anyway here you go lol

The hall ended, and the exterior was back to monochrome. The vines on the wall, the sign, the leaves, everything was grey. They went to read the sign, which promptly stated, ‘Throne Room.’ This was it, then.

It was time to face the king.

They went inside the throne room. There, they could see a garden, with grass and flowers spread across the ground. Sunlight was pouring through the ceiling, although how that was possible, they didn’t know. Possibly, there was an opening above them. It stretched too far for Alex to see, though.

There was a tall man in the room too, with his back facing Alex. All they could really see was the purple cape with gold pauldrons, his short, curly hair, and the crown atop his head. He was quietly humming to himself. Alex approached meekly.

The crunch of the grass beneath their feet alerted the man-- Arnold, Alex decided. He didn’t turn around, but said, “Is someone there? One moment, please, I’m almost done watering the flowers.” 

He finished up and said, “There we go!” He turned around. “Hi! How can I…” He trailed off when he saw Alex. Was that a good thing or a bad thing? They didn’t know. The smile on his face was quickly wiped away. “Oh…”

Alex could see him clearly now. He was somewhat chubby and had glasses propped on his face. And, he seems to know who Alex was. “Oh, I really want to ask if you want a cup of tea right now, but… You know how it is.” The guilt started to creep up on him, being apparent from his face contorting. He looked to the side, and crossed his arms. He smiled sadly. “Nice day today, huh? Birds are singing, flowers are blooming… Perfect weather for a game of catch or something.”

Arnold sighed and tilted his head. He decided to not beat around the bush anymore. “You know what we gotta do… When you’re ready, come into the next room.” And with that, he turned away to go into the next room.

Alex could now see the room in its entirety. There was a lone chair sitting in the centre, made up of purple cloth and a golden frame. The throne. At the edge of the room, by a window, there was a cloaked second throne. It was probably for The Queen. But… where was she? Shouldn’t she be by Arnold’s side ruling the kingdom? Something must’ve happened to her. At least, that’s what Alex’s theory was.

They went into the next room. It was dark, with a circle of sunlight in the centre. Arnold stood there, avoiding Alex’s gaze. “This is really tense, huh? ...Just think of it like… Oh gosh, I don’t know any scenarios that could be as bad as this one. Sorry...”

Alex followed him to a doorway. Arnold closed his eyes, and muttered out, “Are you ready? ...If you’re not, I get it. I’m not ready either.” He went through the doorway. Alex went after him.

This must be it. The barrier. It was quite a magnificent sight to behold. It stretched from white to black, then black to white, on a seemingly endless loop. Arnold looked out towards it. “This is it. This is what keeps us all trapped down here…”

He paused. “If by chance you have some unfinished business you need to take care of, go ahead and do it. I can wait.” Alex shook their head, despite Arnold not being able to see it. “I don’t have anything to do.”

“I see. This is it, then,” he said, turning around to finally face Alex. Seven capsules lifted out of the ground beside him. Six of them had hearts in them.  _ Souls _ .

A strange light filled the room.Twilight was shining through the barrier. It seems that Alex’s journey was finally over.

They’re filled with determination.

Arnold sighed. “It was nice to meet you… Goodbye.” Suddenly, Arnold pulled out a large red trident. The motion caused his cape to move, and Alex could see the armour he was wearing underneath it. “Wait!” a voice called from the distance. It caused Arnold to drop his trident in shock. But… It couldn’t be who Alex thought it was. That couldn’t be possible.

“Nabulungi?” Arnold called out in disbelief. It was exactly who Alex was thinking of. It was her. Naba.

Naba pushed Arnold away from Alex, causing him to stumble back. She looked at Arnold disapprovingly. “What a miserable creature you are, torturing such a poor, innocent youth.” Now she looked at Alex, affection showing in her features. “Don’t be afraid, Small One. It is I, Naba. Your friend and guardian.”

There couldn’t have been a better time for her to show up. Alex was so happy to see her. “At first, I thought I would let you make your journey alone, but I just couldn’t stop worrying about you. Your adventure must’ve been so treacherous.”

They would say that it was, but they didn’t know what  _ treacherous  _ meant. “Ultimately, it would burden you with a horrible choice. To leave this place, you would have to take the life of another person. That person being Arnold.”

Arnold was still recovering from seeing Naba for the first time in God knows how long. And to be fair, Alex was still trying to recover from their shock too. “However, I realized that I just cannot allow that. It’s not right to sacrifice someone to let someone else leave. That was what I’ve been trying to prevent this whole time. So for now, let’s suspend this battle.”

_ Please  _ do. “As terrible as Arnold is, he deserves some mercy too.” Arnold approached Naba cautiously, simply muttering her name. “You came back…?”

“Do not  _ Naba  _ me, Cunningham,” she spat, glaring at the man as she shielded Alex away from him. “You pathetic whelp. If you  _ really  _ wanted to free us, you could’ve gone through the barrier after getting  _ one _ soul, taken six from the Gentiles, then come back and freed us peacefully. But instead, you made everyone live in despair because you would rather wait here, meekly hoping another Gentile never comes.”

Alex had never seen Naba so upset before. It kind of scared them. But at least she was on their side. Arnold hunched over himself in shame. “You’re right… You’re always right… I  _ am  _ a miserable creature…” He looked up at her with hope in his eyes. “Do you at least think that we could be friends again?”

“No, Arnold. I have no interest of even  _ speaking  _ to you.”

Arnold cowered away sadly. They must have some really bad beef if it was like this. Suddenly, they heard footsteps behind them, and they all turned to look at who was coming towards them.

There, one by one, were all the friends Alex had made on their journey. Kevin, Jack, James, Thomas (although he was straggling behind), and… McKinley isn’t their friend, why is he here? Thomas probably dragged him along so he could watch the liberation. After all, McKinley is one of his only friends. Although Alex had no interest in being his friend, they weren’t going to say anything. 

“Oh! Are you the child’s friend? It’s so nice to meet you all! I’m Nabulungi,” she introduced herself, smiling. “Hello!” Kevin greeted first, but immediately turned to Jack, whispering, “Who is she?”

“That’s Mrs. Cunningham. Y’know, the queen of the kingdom and everything?”

“Oh! Cool! I didn’t know there was a queen!”

Naba looked to the side, unsure of how to react to that. “I’m not the queen anymore, I’m afraid. I resigned.”

“You could always come ba—“

“No means no, Arnold.”

Arnold huffed, but didn’t say anything after that. “Why’d you leave? If you don’t mind me asking,” Thomas spoke up, finally joining the group. Although Naba was about to respond, McKinley let out a dramatic gasp. “I’m sorry to break up the reunion here—“ he said, putting a hand on his hip. He walked over to Kevin, Jack glaring at him the entire time, and ran a finger down his chest. “—But I’d like to know if this handsome man has a name.”

Kevin, not realizing what was happening, smiled and said, “Oh, okay! My name’s Kevin! Ke—“ Before Kevin could finish introducing himself to the shorter male, McKinley was flung to the wall at the edge of the room. The source of the occurrence was Jack, who had his left hand out and aimed at McKinley. “Not today, Pansy,” He deadpanned.

Kevin tsked him and said, “Why’d you do that? He probably wanted to be my friend!”

“Oh, no. I’m not letting  _ him  _ of all people try to be your ‘friend.’ Look at him, he just tried to seduce you.”

McKinley, recovering from being thrown like a rag doll, put a hand against the back of his head to try and stop the throbbing. “What the heck was that?!”

“Anyway, it’s so nice to see you, Mrs. Cunningham,” Jack said, ignoring McKinley’s pain. “Oh, I don’t go by  _ that  _ anymore. Please, just call me Naba… Um, are you alright there?” Naba aimed her question towards McKinley. “He’ll be fine.”

“So anyway,” James finally spoke, looking down. “You’re probably wondering why we’re here.” Alex nodded. “We... didn’t want you to get hurt when you faced Arnold.”

“Oh! You’ve made such great friends, haven’t you, My Child?” Naba said, delighted, clasping her hands together. Alex smiled and nodded.

While James and Thomas went to see if McKinley was okay, Jack was whispering to Kevin. Suddenly, Kevin’s face lit up and he yelled, “Are you the lady from the door Jack keeps telling me about?!”

“Did you really have to  _ yell  _ that?”

“Oh!” Naba gasped. It was hard to tell, but Alex thinks she’s blushing. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t recognize you!”

“Hate to admit it, but I didn’t recognize you either,” Jack replied, grabbing Kevin’s arm for support. “It’s so great to meet you for real, Mrs., really.”

Meanwhile, with the trio, McKinley was sat against the wall, groaning from the pain of being smashed into it. “Con, how many times have I told you  _ not  _ to flirt with every ‘cute’ guy you see?” Thomas muttered, checking to see if he had any serious damage.

“Can you blame me, though? I mean look at him, he’s a whole snack.”

Thomas rolled his eyes and sat down next to him. “No, look at him! Look! He’s wearing a sweater, that’s the cutest thing I’ve ever seen!”

“You should stop now,” James commented, hugging his knees to his chest. “Why? Am I not allowed to be gay now?”

“That’s not what he’s saying,” Thomas answered for him. “It’s just that Kevin’s his friend and he’d prefer if you didn’t talk about him… y’know, like  _ that _ .”

McKinley crossed his arms but complied. That wouldn’t stop him from staring at Kevin, though.

“So anyway, there’s a way to break the barrier  _ without  _ killing The Kid, right?” Jack asked,

looking between Arnold and Naba. Neither knew the answer to that. “C’mon, we can’t just kill him.”

Alex tugged on Jack’s sleeve, grabbing his attention. “What’s up, Kid?”

“Grab my soul.”

“Huh?”

They had an idea, and they wanted to try it. “Grab my soul and put it in the tube.”

“I don’t think putting it in the tube will do anything, Kid.”

“Put it in the tube!”

Jack sighed. He wasn’t going to fight them over this. He didn’t have the energy to do it. “Fine, okay. But don’t complain if it hurts you. Stand still.” Alex did so. Jack reached into their chest and pulled out their soul. It was the colour red. “Oh! You have the soul of determination!” Kevin commented, putting his hands behind his back. “I’ve never seen one before!”

“That’s because you’ve only seen our souls.”

“Yeah! So I’ve never seen one like this before!”

“You’re so weird.”

Jack took the soul and put it inside the empty vessel. “Okay, now what do we do?”

Everyone looked at Alex expectantly. They glanced at everyone around them, then said, “Um… Break the barrier?”   
“Yeah, okay, but how?” Jack looked over at the three boys at the wall. “Thomas! How do we break the barrier?!” He shouted towards them, though his question was directed at Thomas. “Um… Try shoving the souls into the barrier!” he yelled back. “Cool. Okay, so do that.”

Alex didn’t know where to start. Maybe they should try shoving all the capsules into it? “Hey, Mr. Arnold, sir, shouldn’t you know how to break the barrier?” Kevin asked while Alex shoved the capsules into the barrier. “Oh, I do, it’s just-- It’s complicated and stuff…?”   
“He doesn’t know,” Naba stated, crossing her arms. Suddenly, everyone could hear the barrier crack. The souls were breaking it.

It started off with a small crack. Then it grew bigger. It started branching out, until the whole thing collapsed with a boom. And there it was.

The Mormons were free.

“Oh gosh, he did it!” Kevin jumped up excitedly. “Jack look, he did it!” Everyone muttered words of amazement as they looked past where the barrier used to be.

The path only lead upwards, and sunshine shone through it. Alex was first to go up, with everyone following behind them. They stopped at a cliff that looked over a forest full of green trees. In the distance, they could see the sun setting in the horizon.

“Oh my,” Naba whispered incredulously. It was truly a wonderful sight. “It’s really pretty,” Arnold added, smiling. “It’s even better than on TV!” Thomas said as well, grabbing for James’s hand. “It’s way better! Better than I ever imagined!”

“...Kid, you  _ live  _ with this?” James directed towards Alex, who simply nodded and smiled. “The sunlight’s so nice… and the air is so fresh.”

Kevin tugged on Jack’s sleeve to get his attention. “Hey, Jack?”

“What’s up?”

“What’s that giant ball over there?”

“‘S the sun.”

“That’s the sun?! Wow! I can’t believe I’m meeting the sun!” Jack simply chuckled and went back to watching the sunset. “I could stand here and watch it for hours,” Arnold spoke again, not taking his eyes off the sunset. “You really, could, couldn’t you?” Naba replied.

It seemed as if everything would be okay for everyone. A sense of tranquility washed over the group.

“We should really think about what comes next now,” Naba said, looking at the group. “Huh. You’re right,” Arnold replied, looking at her. “This is the beginning of a bright new future. An era of peace between Mormons and Gentiles.”

“Sorry to interrupt, Mr. Cunningham,” Jack said apologetically. “But uh, Non-Mormons aren’t called Gentiles.”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” he apologized. “I hope I haven’t been offending you, Son.”

“You’re fine, don’t worry,” the headband said for Alex. “Good. I would feel bad if I was.”

To be fair, Alex didn’t really care what they were labelled as. But that wasn’t what was important right now. What was important was what will happen to all of their friends. “Hey, Kid? What’s your policy on gay people?” McKinley finally spoke up, concentrating on the sunset. “Gay rights.”

“Good to know.” He went back to staring at the sun, which was slowly but surely leaving the view. “Anyway,” Arnold started up again. “I have something to ask of you, Kid.”

Alex just realized they never told anyone their name. How is that even possible? They guessed they just got accustomed to being referred to as ‘Kid’ or ‘Kiddo’ or ‘Squirt.’ “Huh. That’s true,” Jack said, running a hand through his hair. “What’s your name, then?”

“Alex.”

“Cool name.”

“Well, Alex,” Arnold continued. “This may sound challenging, but will you act as our ambassador to the Non-Mormons?” Alex nodded. They didn’t know what an ambassador was, but they agreed. “Yeah! Squirt’ll be the best ambassador! ...Can I be the mascot?” Kevin questioned, grinning. “Sure.”

“Cool! C’mon, Jack, I gotta make a good first impression!” he shouted, running down the path leading down the mountain. “Cool beans. See you guys later,” Jack called out, running with Kevin.

“Not gonna lie, I kinda wanna follow ‘em,” McKinley said. He had this look on his face that Alex couldn’t describe. Maybe because they didn’t know what he was feeling. “Connor, he’s not interested. Don’t try,” Thomas stated, glaring at McKinley. “You can’t stop me,” McKinley shouted, running after Kevin. “Okay, well if Jack kills you, that’s not my fault!”

“Can we go down too?” James asked quietly, looking down at Thomas. “Sure!” With that, the pair went down too, hand in hand, though not as fast as the first three boys rushed down. That only left Arnold, Naba, and Alex.

There was a moment of silence between the three, with Arnold letting out a cough during it. “So, um… Should I do something?” He asked Naba specifically. Naba only glared at him. “Well, I gotta go, so… Bye!” He went down the mountain too. Naba watched him go. “It seems like everyone is quite eager to set off.”

Silence for a moment more. Naba looked at them. “Alex… You came from this world, right?” Alex nodded. “So you must have a place to return to, then?”

Well… They do have to go back home to their family. But to be fair, they liked spending time with Naba too. They were torn between where they should go. “If you have somewhere to live already,” Naba started. “I shouldn’t take that away from you. You should go back. And, you can visit us any time you like. But please, if you have a family, you should return to them.”

Alex took this into consideration. Maybe they should go back home. But then where will everyone else go? “Don’t worry about us,” she said, smiling. “We will manage on our own. I promise.” Alex shrugged and looked down. “We should probably go, too. The others must be waiting for us.”

Naba ruffled their hair and grabbed their hand. “Come on, Alex. Our new lives are about to begin!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> its almost over >> theres still one more chapter left though uwu it’ll be up in a minute lol just hold on


	16. Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> leaving this without an epilogue would be just. terrible. so, heres an epilogue! just so everyone gets to know how everyones doing on the surface :)  
have fun!

A month after the Mormons were liberated, a lot had changed. People barely even noticed that most of them were, well, Mormons. But, when the town they now stayed in found out, they were hesitant, but welcomed them all with open arms.

Well, most of them did. Some were afraid that the Mormons were dangerous, just like they were told they were. However, those people had warmed up to them soon.

The group of friends were doing well too. For starters, Naba had become a school teacher, just like she had dreamed of being. She mostly taught for elementary level children. She took care of Alex whenever their parents went away and they needed a babysitter. Although Alex didn’t really need a babysitter, they appreciated that they could spend time with Naba anyway.

Kevin ended up being a missionary, though his efforts to convert the neighbours were futile. They weren’t interested in switching to Mormonism, but every time he knocked on their doors, they praised him for his commendable efforts. And, as it turns out, he had been diagnosed with ADHD. It made sense, really. He was extremely hyper, had problem paying attention, and was pretty absent-minded. But that was okay. He liked himself the way he was.

Jack didn’t really do much. He forced himself to get a day job at a local retail store, just so Kevin didn’t have to worry about what he was doing while he was proselytizing. He was being productive, and that was all that mattered. He also ended up going to a therapist when he wracked up enough money. He ended up being diagnosed with depression. It made sense, really. It explained why he was so tired all the time, why he couldn’t will himself to do anything, and why he had insomnia. Kevin tries to help him whenever he can.

James was now a self-defense instructor. He liked helping people learn how to fight back from potential danger. He felt like his mother would be proud of him for what he was doing. He was good at what he did, and a lot of the people taking the class marvelled at how strong he was. Hopefully, most of them will be able to protect themselves in the future. He too went to a therapist, and was also diagnosed with depression. He was glad he could put a name to why he was the way he was. He was working through his issues, though, going to his therapist weekly.

Thomas was still a scientist, but it was difficult for him to find work. And, to be completely honest, he wasn’t the one who did most of the work in The Lab. That was Jack’s work. But, he was still qualified to be a scientist. He ended up working with his family in a bakery they managed to open, just like how it was back in The Underground. That included his sister as well, who, although still sort of melty, was back at home too. Thomas didn’t actually live with his family, though. Instead, he lived with James in their own house. He wouldn’t have it any other way.

McKinley managed to be a TV star. He started off with minor roles, even being an extra in a few shows, but soon enough he climbed to the top of the chart and hosted his own show, doing what he did best. Being a jazzercise instructor. He was popular with the middle aged people, but that was okay. He loved all his fans, no matter what age they were. He even managed to star in a few movies. And, although he did try to get with Kevin at first, he let him go. There were plenty of people he could choose from.

Arnold opened up a gardening business at the edge of town. Although he was royalty to the Mormons, that meant nothing to everyone else. That was okay, though. He liked gardening, doing that on his spare time underground, in fact, so it worked out for him in the end. He mostly specialized in flowers, even setting up shop to sell some in a flower stand on the weekends. He and Nabulungi never got back together, but if she was happy on her own, then he was happy too.

Alex returned home to their parents, who had been worried sick about them. They told them about their adventures underground, and about all the friends they had made. Although their parents had been shocked at first, and a little scared that the Mormons had harmed them in any way, they warmed to their friends after a little while. Alex didn’t have many friends before, but seeing they made any friends at all made their parents happy. And they couldn’t be happier.

But what about the others they had met? The background characters, if you will. Where are they now?

To start, Alex’s friend Kyle didn’t do much more than he’d done before. He was just a boy, after all, there wasn’t much to do. But he went to school just like other kids, and still idolized James. He and Alex kept in touch, and they were still friends to this day. Alex’s mother liked him a lot.

Veronica from the burger place didn’t end up making it big. Instead, she was stuck working at a  _ different  _ burger joint. She was miserable, but at least she wasn’t stuck being employed under McKinley anymore. That was what she was happy about the most. She hopes that one day she will be an actress, like she had dreamed she would be since she was little. She takes acting classes now to try and help her chances of getting a role for  _ anything _ .

The people from The Lab who previously were stuck in there were returned to their families. Their families were happy to have them home, even if they were deformed now. They all had a happy ending too.

The River Person’s identity was never revealed. They remained a mystery, though their identity will be revealed to you. Who is you? Well, you. The person reading this. They-- or rather,  _ she _ , was a middle aged woman named Nancy. She is actually James’s mother, who ran away from home to escape her past. She missed her son dearly, but felt it would be best if they never saw each other again. He had done well without her thus far, so he could live without her anyway. It was hard watching him go on without her, but she was proud of him nonetheless.

And with that, the story comes to a close. The Mormons are free and accepted into society, and everything was okay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for reading, yall! i really appreciate it! and thank you for following me on my nanowrimo journey! it was stressful but fun! uwu  
i wont be doing this next year.  
and my return to ao3 after this??? no idea how thatll work but. we’ll come to that when we do  
goodbye!


	17. ...

“Hello?” a girl called out. Alex couldn’t see her. They couldn’t see anything, in fact. It was too dark. “Can you hear me?”

“Yes,” the headband said for them. “Good.” The girl revealed herself. She was the same height as Alex, and she looked somewhat similar to them. She wore a dark green dress with a black bow wrapped around her waist, with white frills towards the bottom her dress. She had white stockings on, and she had bouncy, short, blonde curly hair. “I can tell you’re not satisfied with your life.” Alex looked down. Did they really not feel satisfied with their life…? They thought they were. They helped so many people, why would they be dissatisfied?

“You want to know what would happen if you had taken a different path in the underground.” Did they…? They were pretty okay with how they handled things down there. “Don’t worry, most of us have that sick sense of curiosity. I can help you.”

Alex didn’t even know this girls name, but she wanted them to trust her? Okay. “Come on, Alex, don’t be that way. If it makes you feel better, my name’s Tiffany.”

“Nice to meet you…?” Tiffany smiled. “But for real, I can help you.”

A orange lined box, filled in with black, with the word ‘Reset’ written on it in bright orange letters appeared in front of them. “If you press this button, you can go back to before you went down to the underground. You can take the path I can see you want to take.”

“What path is that?”

Tiffany’s bright blue eyes had turned into a deep red. “The genocide route.” Huh?! Alex didn’t know if they liked that. “Come on, Alex,” Tiffany coaxed. “All you have to do is press the button. I’ll even make a deal with you.”

Alex didn’t want to do this. “C’mon. I’ll even join you on your journey if you want. I was under there too, y’know. I was the first human who fell down.”

Nope. Not gonna happen. If she had some personal vendetta against the Mormons, then that was fine, Alex didn’t want any part of it. Everyone was happy because of them. They all get to live on the surface, they were free... They’re all friends, and…

But there was something inside him telling him to press the button. If they press it, then everything they did would be for naught. Everything they worked for… It would be gone.

“I’ll let you think about it,” Tiffany said. She had a sickly sweet voice, and Alex didn’t think they liked it very much. She was trying way too hard to convince them. “Goodbye, Alex! Come back when you make your decision!”

And with that, Tiffany disappeared, leaving Alex alone in the dark with the reset button. They would feel guilty for pressing the button, but the possibilities of what they could do given another chance were endless. Maybe they should do it.

But… No. They wouldn’t do this to their friends. That would be terrible. They’ll just leave genocide for an alternate universe.

.

“Hey, Alex,” Jack greeted the next time he saw them. “So… Have you been doing anything interesting lately?”

Alex shook their head. They decided not to mention the creepy girl they met in their dreams. “You haven’t seen any buttons or anything, have you? Weird question, I know.”

“Um…” The headband stuttered out, expressing Alex’s thoughts perfectly. They decided to tell the truth. “Yeah. It was a reset button. A girl in my dreams showed me it.”

Jack’s breath hitched, and he hastily grabbed Alex’s shoulders. “Listen to me, Alex,” he said, panic in his voice. “Don’t ever think about pressing that button. If you do, we’ll start back at square one and we’ll all be trapped underground again. Kid, if you do anything for me,  _ please  _ don’t press that fucking button. Everythings gotten so much better since we got up here, I can’t go back.”

Alex hesitated before saying anything else. “Promise me!”

“Alright, I promise I won’t touch the button!”

Jack sighed in relief. “Thank God. Thanks, kid. I really appreciate it.”

“Anytime,” They said. The urge to press the button was low, but it was still there. They won’t press it, though.

They were determined not to.

“Anyway, the gang is gonna get together later today at Nabulungi’s house if you’re interested. You can invite some of your own friends too if you want.” Alex agreed to go. That sounded like fun. “Cool. I’ll let them know.” Jack started to walk away, but stopped to say something else. “Hey, Kid?”

“Yeah?”

“Thanks. For everything. We’re all so grateful for what you did for us. God, if you didn’t end up coming down and freeing us all, something bad would’ve happened to a lot of us. So, thanks. On behalf of all of us, thank you.”

“You’re welcome!”

“Alright,” Jack said, walking away. “See you at the party, Kid!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> MormonTale - Genocide edition  
coming.... eventually


End file.
